My wife Lori, had a unusual "unknown" episode Saturday night and I'm hoping maybe someone else might have had a similar experience. While enjoying a nice end of summer evening outside playing backgammon, Lori suddenly had a blank expression on her face and was unresponsive for about 30-45 seconds. She became weak, stunned and perplexed afterwards. As she regained her composure, she described the event as the opposite of her original rupture 18 years ago but without pain or visual effects. Her surroundings went completely quiet as though energy and sound was escaping like a air leak from a tire.
She was migraine prodrome during the early afternoon but it certainly wasn't like her usual weather related migraines. As she recovered, she felt a heaviness behind right ear along with pins and needles tingling well below the skull. She was completely responsive and I tested her senses, reflexes, blood pressure ( although higher then normal for her) and memory questions and all were normal. As I'm not a Doctor, I had to quickly weigh whether this was a emergency event. We were on a fence all eveningas to whether to go to the ER because other then the episode she was in good shape except for the weakness and the rear skull head pain and tingling that was beginning to resolve tonight. If this was a migraine event, it was pretty unusual. She scheduled to see her Neurologist on Friday and will discuss this.
Hi Ed...just my personal question I am asking myself after reading this...Could it be a seizure? I am glad Lori is going to see her Neurologist...please keep us posted...You both have my Thoughts and prayers...~ Colleen
I have similar experiences and I was recently monitored (EEG) for 48 hours for simple/partial complex seizures, I'm still awaiting the results of the test. I also have the visual hallucinations I guess is what they would call them. Seeing stars, color shapes etc... All of this started about 6 months after my surgery.
If I may suggest, I would see the neuro dr. I've read that brain trauma can lead to seizures and that there is no time limit on when they can occur.
oh my that must have been scary- same happened to my father- he collapsed -i always thought it was a mini stroke but we'll never know since he refused medical treatment. I had similar experience walking out of the hospital after recoiling -became disoriented and words made no sense- i chalked it up to the drugs and no sleep for two days- one day being in the hospital was strange to walk out of hospital feeling so poorly -i had to stop at the dinnette and rest & then was fine. Also once in the bathroom i collapsed -just felt weak-smacked my head against the tile floor which jarred me back to reality-very scary- but that was 2 years ago & hasn't happened since. i was SAH coiled 3 years ago.i sure hope you get a good report- i completely relate to being on the fence! keep us posted Ed-i guess really we're supposed to go to the ER but i'm stubborn -jus like pappy! maybe if i wasn't so stubborn i wouldn't be permanently disabled -if i knew then what i know now-had no idea i was having a SAH-tried to fight it off!! annie won round 1,dr Jabbour & co. won round 2,still battling rounds 3 thru 12 i suppose-sorry-still trying to master the 500 word run-on sentence!
Ed, I don’t know anything about seizures, just want to you to know that I hope you and Lori find answers this week, and i am seding “positive thoughts” your way- it might not be a bad idea to check on the possibility of a seizure or TIA…Dana
Thank you for your great suggestions and they make perfect sense. Here I'm trying to keep myself prepared for all other contingencies and the thing your not prepared for sneaks up on us. I'll call first thing tomorrow to see if this test can be done now.
I read an article in today's paper that suggested a term that helps identify what everyone here at BAF is all about and the term used is "Physician Extenders." No matter how the Healthcare Tax (here in the U.S.) plays out, we all will need to sharpen our medical knowledge to help ease the future crush that is about to hit. Three cheers for all those helping each other!!
Hello Ed i hope Lori is ok, i hope you've seen the Doc by now.
I was just wondering if it could of been a mixture of medications that could of caused that episode mixed with being tired. These things can be quite scary. I hope you found the answer.
Lori was taking the same medications as the last 13 years - topamax 100 mg daily and one Maxalt Melt 10 Mg PRN earlier that afternoon. She was completely aware of her visual surroundings during the episode but felt a strange silence.
Ed...you said this so well for the Hellth Care Indusry here... worrying about it...regardless of how it is paid... there's one hellth of a lot paid for in the existing set up...
Hugs and prayers for you and Lori for her diagnosis and recovery...
We had our appointment today and all appeared well. The unknown episode occurred to quick and wasn't long lasting so her Doctor wants to take a conservative approach because it's possible it may never occur again but if it does then a battery of tests will be done. Given the high deductible on our insurance, I'm grateful not to have a $$$$ bill again.
Oh, I see that you are the caregiver for your wife. I admire you so much for staying faithfully with her after her rupture 18 years ago. I would love to stay in touch with you since you are the first caregiver I've come across on this site. I'm going to try to do a friends request to you on this site but haven't done one here yet so I hope it works.
I have had migraines for over 30 years and my daughter, Amanda, who had the rupture never had headaches till the most awful one on the day of her rupture. Thankfully, she has not had headaches since her rupure either.