In January this year my 63 year old father very unexpectedly had some sort of apparently neurological episode in the middle of dinner and had to be rushed to hospital. This first episode mostly involved him being extremely dizzy, not being able to see properly and muscle spasms throughout his body. He was conscious and able to speak (but only just). He wasn't able to stand.
Since then he's had many more episodes, which haven't involved dizziness or visual disturbance, but have involved full body muscle spasms from relatively mild through to very severe. He's been hospitalised multiple times and is taking valium relatively often to try to keep the fits under control, but that only helps to a small degree. He's always conscious throughout, but especially severe events leave him feeling extremely exhausted and he needs to sleep a lot.
From what I've read these could be described as partial seizures, which is why I keep wondering about epilepsy.
These seizures can happen a few times a day over the course of weeks, but occasionally he gets a break of a few days to a fortnight with no problems at all. They do often seem to have visual triggers (flashing lights, watching TV, reading) and sometimes he feels that sounds or even smells have triggered them. When he's having a bad day, speaking on the phone is a particularly obvious trigger. Other times there is no apparent trigger.
The only ongoing health problem he's had until now is high blood pressure. He also has a low pulse.
He's had every test his doctor thinks might be relevant and has been changed to a different type of BP medication to see if that would make any difference (it didn't). He's also had an MRI, EEG and contrast CT scan. So far none of the tests he's had have shown any problems.
The first neurologist he saw instantly dismissed the first fit as being vertigo and the rest as being anxiety triggered by the vertigo ... which we all think is a joke! My Dad is the least likely person I know to suffer with anxiety about anything and his symptoms seem far too severe and occur far too randomly to be panic attacks.
The second neurologist is taking the problem seriously but at this point is completely mystified about what it might be. He's currently talking to his colleagues about it.
So I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience and particularly whether you've been treated successfully with epilepsy meds even if test results have been normal.
Also, I know my Dad is particularly old in terms of developing epilepsy out of the blue. But is this still possible?
Any other insights or advice you can offer in terms of getting a diagnosis and treatment would be really helpful. We don't really know where to turn next. If it helps we're in Australia.
Since then he's had many more episodes, which haven't involved dizziness or visual disturbance, but have involved full body muscle spasms from relatively mild through to very severe. He's been hospitalised multiple times and is taking valium relatively often to try to keep the fits under control, but that only helps to a small degree. He's always conscious throughout, but especially severe events leave him feeling extremely exhausted and he needs to sleep a lot.
From what I've read these could be described as partial seizures, which is why I keep wondering about epilepsy.
These seizures can happen a few times a day over the course of weeks, but occasionally he gets a break of a few days to a fortnight with no problems at all. They do often seem to have visual triggers (flashing lights, watching TV, reading) and sometimes he feels that sounds or even smells have triggered them. When he's having a bad day, speaking on the phone is a particularly obvious trigger. Other times there is no apparent trigger.
The only ongoing health problem he's had until now is high blood pressure. He also has a low pulse.
He's had every test his doctor thinks might be relevant and has been changed to a different type of BP medication to see if that would make any difference (it didn't). He's also had an MRI, EEG and contrast CT scan. So far none of the tests he's had have shown any problems.
The first neurologist he saw instantly dismissed the first fit as being vertigo and the rest as being anxiety triggered by the vertigo ... which we all think is a joke! My Dad is the least likely person I know to suffer with anxiety about anything and his symptoms seem far too severe and occur far too randomly to be panic attacks.
The second neurologist is taking the problem seriously but at this point is completely mystified about what it might be. He's currently talking to his colleagues about it.
So I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience and particularly whether you've been treated successfully with epilepsy meds even if test results have been normal.
Also, I know my Dad is particularly old in terms of developing epilepsy out of the blue. But is this still possible?
Any other insights or advice you can offer in terms of getting a diagnosis and treatment would be really helpful. We don't really know where to turn next. If it helps we're in Australia.
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