Question about seizures

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

jessmm

New
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hi everyone! I've been having some unusual "spells" for a few years now, and I haven't paid very much attention to them. However recently I Googled a couple of symptoms and Google came back with the suggestion of seizures and I wanted to know what you guys think. I'd appreciate any feedback.

A few years ago I remember I was sitting outside watching my two boys play. I remember there was some sort of sound that my brain honed in on, and then I was overwhelmed with an intense feeling of deja vu. I could swear I knew every word and every sound just before it happened, and sounds became very amplified in my mind. At the same time I became very nauseous and disoriented. That lasted probably less than a minute and I remember thinking "boy that was weird".

I've had a few other similar waking episodes like that, though not quite as intense.

However it also happens when I sleep. The other night I had a dream, very boring and mundane, where I was walking through a garage. I glanced at a table full of junk and saw some box. When I saw the box the whole deja vu thing hit again, and I catapulted out of bed and went running for the bathroom because the nausea was so intense. Again that passed fairly quickly. Then for about half an hour after I felt very..surreal. It felt like I had been dropped into a parallel universe where everything was familiar, and yet it felt wrong.

I don't experience any strange smells or weird tastes in my mouth. Never any obvious seizures that people witness. I did have to buy a mouth guard a few years ago because I started grinding my teeth so bad in my sleep that I cracked most of them.

My husband has also commented on how much I move around in my sleep now, whereas before I used to sleep pretty peacefully. I guess recently I even punched him in the face while sleeping.

Does any of that sound seizure related? Is it something I should be concerned about? Thank you for any advice!
 
Welcome! Jessmm, I would advise you see a neurologist. The types of seizures are numerous, and everyone is different. It sounds to me like a simple partial seizure if it is a seizure, but you should definitely see someone.
 
Hi jessmm, welcome to CWE!

Deja vu, nausea, and disorientation can all be forms of simple partial seizures, so your symptoms could be seizure-related. Check out http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-seizures/simple-partial-seizures for a description of the different forms simple partials can take. As Emerald notes, the best step would be to contact your GP for a referral to a neuro, especially if you've noticed that the symptoms are escalating in frequency or duration.

It's a good idea to keep a journal tracking your symptoms. It can give the doctor a sense of what's going on, and also might help you to identify any triggers or patterns. For seizures, the most common trigger is fatigue, but any kind of physical, physiological, emotional or environmental stressor can potentially be triggering. To get an idea of what to look for and ways to be proactive see: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f22/proactive-prescription-epilepsy-1254/
 
Thank you for your feedback! How important is it do you think to get checked out by the doctor if I'm not blacking out? From what I've read online it sounds like it's a difficult thing for them to prove unless they can record it while it's happening, is that right?
 
How important is it do you think to get checked out by the doctor if I'm not blacking out?

Extremely important, since seizures can escalate in severity and/or frequency. And there is the theory that having uncontrolled seizures can cause more seizures to occur (ie. "seizures beget seizures" or something like that). An MRI and EEG interpreted by a neurologist can provide almost instant answers if they are abnormal If they are normal epilepsy cannot be ruled out, but these tests are at least a place to start. As others have said, keep a careful journal of your symptoms, including dates and times they have occurred and any potential triggers you can think of. Keep us posted!
 
For an EEG, more often than not, a short EEG is not enough. A 24+ hr EEG is almost always what is needed to diagnose. If you aren't having an episode during the EEG on your own, sometimes they will try to trigger one.
 
Back
Top Bottom