EMERGENCY HELP! Seizure, brain fog & total regression

General
1

Good day friends. My mom is a TBI survivor. June 22, 2011 marks one year since the incident. She was doing great and home with her family until June 6th, when she started suffering hallucinations and sleepless nights. It was determined that she had a UTI. She was released on June 10th and less than 2 days later had her first ever seizure. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, June 12th. The evening of her seizure she was perfectly fine and communicating, laughing, watching the basketball playoffs, calling her friends on the phone etc. Monday morning we couldn't even wake her up for over 30 minutes straight. When she did awaken, she just stared blankly. She remained like that until Tuesday evening around 9pm. She woke up and was able to feed herself and then in the evening she conversed on the phone.

It is now Friday and she really has not been awake much, and when she is, she is completely spaced out. She does nothing more than stare into space. She barely tracks when people speak. She is seriously catatonic at this point! She does not respond in any way and her body is growing very stiff. She was ambulatory just last week and this week can't even stand on her own.

She has gone for an MRI, MRA, Echocardiagram, overnight EEG and everything is normal apparently! The only changes to her medication have been adding Norvasc in the morning, aspirin and Kepra 2x daily. Has anyone ever heard of someone completely regressing to a vegetable state with absolutely NO explanation? The attending MD says that brain injury is like this with waxing and waning. This is not waxing and waning! This is total regression in a matter of days from a person who was laughing and taking walks around the block!

Please give me feedback. I am at a total loss here! Thanks very much!

Christie

Long Island, NY

PS- All blood work and urine are negative. The infectious disease doctor didn't feel mom had a cerebral infection since she has not had any fever.

2

Oh my gosh! I don't know what to say expect that I hope you get some answers and fast..

Prayers are with you all..

Kimberley

3

Christie...I am so sorry to learn of your mother's unexpected condition...relapse or new? Have you researched the meds on-line for precautions, contraindications and warnings?

Wishing you many prayers...and, getting the right diagnosis from the right mds...

4

My mom (no brain issues) fell down in her home and was alone on the floor for nearly 3 days - hallucinating, confused etc by the time she was found. She too had every kind of scan, they initally thought stroke, but all tests/scans were okay, except for a severe UTI, which can cause those symptoms, especially in older people. I had no idea UTI’s could do all of that - she’s been on meds now for 4mos - but the confusion disapated after a few days - in that way unlike your mom. I’d seriously be looking into side-effects of the meds they have her on. I can say from experience that the effects from a bad UTI can mimic stroke, but that wasn’t the case w my mom. Just look into those meds - she could be having bad side effects from one, or from the interactions of multiple ones. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

5

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Just to make things clear, I am totally aware of the side effects a UTI can cause. Since October, mom has had 10! Currently her urine is clean. As far as the meds, she is on the same medication she has been on since January. The only difference is that the dosage is less. She takes 20mg of Ritalin and 100mg of Amantadine daily. Since last week’s seizure she is taking Kepra 5mg. Other than her neuro meds she takes Labetalol and Norvasc for hypertension and Zocor for cholesterol. That’s it. Infectious disease cleared her of an infection.

This is a mystery to every doctor involved! It’s heartbreaking to me to watch my mother this way with no clue what’s going on or how to help her!

:-[