Spells of Confusion

I’m 11 months past the date my aneurysm burst. It resulted in both coiling and clipping as well as two strokes. My recovery has been VERY slow. I have been having bouts of confusion since my craniotomy in March and they are becoming more frequent. They have sent me to the ER twice in the past month. I will forget where I am and how I got there. The spells are short (Few seconds to a few minutes) and I feel very tired after each one. I’m scheduled for an EEG on Aug 5th because my Neurologist thinks I may be having seizures (I don’t think so). Has anyone else had problems with confusion? If so, what caused yours and how did you deal with it?

Hey Codehugger,
Prior to my own personal ‘neuro’ situation I worked with people with disabilities and have had a bit of experience with people having seizures. We often think of seizures as being the full on, body thrashing type seizures, also known as Grand Mal seizures. But there are primarily 3 different kinds of seizures, the aforementioned Grand Mal, then there’s what is known as Petite Mal which can range from small tremors or shaking of limbs. Some can even simply be a tremble. Then there is what is often known as “absences” or pseudo seizures, like a disconnection from reality. The common link with all three is the tiredness to extreme exhaustion post episode. The most common I have had experience with was a client who had pseudo seizures, which, to me, sounds very similar to yours. He did not thrash, he did not tremble nor shake. But his stare become vacant and he had no outwardly interaction with his environment. This could last for a few minutes to a few hours. For many years he had no clear diagnosis but it was clear that there was something, neurologically, that was occurring. And again when he ‘came around from an episode’ he was highly confused, unsure of what had occurred, very concerned about his actions in the time he was not conscious and all he wanted to do was sleep. Some individuals did not believe that he had epilepsy and it was only after he had received a medical diagnosis that they reluctantly accepted, somewhat.

So that’s my experience with a non shaking form of epilepsy. Hopefully a member will come forward who has a more personal experience, but I can assure you that not all seizures present with the ‘typical’ shaking.

Merl from the Moderator Support Team

Thank you for that information. I have read a lot about seizures. I still have some of my seizure medication but I haven’t taken it for months. I think I will test the seizure theory by taking the meds again each evening when I get home. I hate starting and stopping any medication without talking to a doctor but all attempts to talk with a Neurologist have failed for the past week (three ER visits!). The seizure medication test was suggested by a doctor but he wasn’t a Neurologist and also pointed out that the meds would interfere with my Aug 2nd EEG. I have to try it because I can’t handle this any longer.