wayne_curr

iTrader: (8)

While at work (costco). How embarassing. I remember feeling light headed, kinda like a low blood sugar type of thing, then I remember being on an ambulance. I guess I was conscious for all but like 3 minutes or so but if I wasn't completely catatonic I couldn't remember who or where I was. I've never blacked out an hour of my life like this even on the heaviest nights of drinking. Its really freaky to say the least. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me.

Hopefully this was just a one time thing. I go in for an EEG (brain scan) in 2 weeks to see if there is any sign of epilepsy going on upstairs. I had a cat scan and blood work done in the ER and they came back fine. As far as the doc could tell i'm the spittin image of health, aside from the seizure of course. I cant drive til the EEG and if it turns out i'm epileptic, i'll be done driving forever. Imagine that, i'll have to find a new hobby. Quite the bummer.

The scariest part is that i've had that same strange lightheaded feeling at work before and just wrote it off as low blood sugar or something. It always happens after I eat a crappy lunch and start working really hard. I'm a stocker so I have a very physical job.

Anyone else been down this road before?

Oh, even many days later i'm still more sore than i've ever been from working out before. Not just here and there either, EVERY single muscle in my body is as sore as they could possibly be. Really sucks.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Sounds to me like you were dehydrated or just ran out of energy. I've felt like that before when we went black on food/water up in the hills of asscrackistan. I think the only thing that kept me going was adrenaline.

Definitely make eating at lunch a priority and DRINK WATER!

y8s

iTrader: (8)

find a friend at work with a diabetes test kit and next time you feel that way, give him/her a drop of blood and check your blood sugar. hypoglycemia could mean coma.

wayne_curr

iTrader: (8)

The paramedics checked it ~15 mins after the seizure and it was perfect. Not sure if that necessarily means that i'm not hypoglycemic though. My grandmother and mother are both hypoglycemic and diabetes runs in my family.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

It's good that you are getting a brain scan

curly

iTrader: (25)

Epileptic does NOT mean you are through with driving forever, not in the least. Once you're on medication you have to prove that you haven't had a seizure in the last six months or so and they'll give your license back. This was my friend's epileptic experience in Oregon, not Washington. He said it was a little harder in Boston, although he didn't have a car, so he didn't bother going through with the requirements. He said Oregon requirements were stupid easy. Like getting medical marijuana. If you ask your doc, he'll probably say ok.

Along with drinking water, which is good for anyone, the main factors to my friend's seizures were not getting enough sleep, and high stress levels. He was going through his Mechanical Engineering finals at MIT, and getting almost no sleep at night. Seizures at that point were almost weekly. He was also horrible about taking his medication. With a steady job, more sleep, an income, and daily medication, he hasn't had one in over a year I think (only graduated 2-3 years ago). He also no longer reports the seizures officially, not worth the cost of the ambulance ride (I hope you haven't looked at the bill yet). There's honestly no reason to unless serious injuries result (such as biting off your tongue. [no joke])

Research what to do when someone is having a seizure, and tell EVERYONE you are around on a daily basis, and tell them how to treat you. Such as not trying to restrain, not trying to 'wake up', and not sticking ANYTHING in your mouth. Some people try to protect the tongue, they'll just end up fingerless.

Your brain is broken and sending random electrical currents to any and all muscles, including ones you've possibly never used in your life. Hence the soreness, in case no one explained that.

EEG are fun, they look like a MS log.

Hope the electroencephalogram is ok.

curly

iTrader: (25)

I think there's some confusion here.

Hypoglycemic means you blood sugar is usually low. This means below 80 roughly.

Diabetes means your pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to manage your glucose levels, and therefore your glucose levels go all over the place.

If you're hypoglycemic, this generally means you're diabetic, just a type of diabetes where the pancreas over reacts and produces too much insulin.

If the paramedics checked your glucose levels, they most likely read somewhere between 110 and 125ish? If so, I wouldn't think you're diabetic, especially if you're in decent shape.

thirdgen

iTrader: (26)

Holy Crap! I hope everything for you turns out well.
Christmas day I was driving to Philly to my wifes Uncle's house for dinner, and on the turnpike everything started to spin, so I pulled over and my wife had to drive. My doctor diagnosed me with vertigo, to which I called BS. They gave me some kind of high strength motion sickness pills which made me want to do nothing except sleep all day. I got an MRI and they found NOTHING. I haven't really had a spell like that since.
I fainted on stage in an elementary school Christmas concert in like 3rd grade, but I never had a seisure.
I truly wish you the best of luck with whatever it is that is causing your issues.

Faeflora

iTrader: (2)

Good luck dude!

dstn2bdoa

iTrader: (18)

Curly hits the nail on the head in both of his posts. The only thing that I might add, is that many people confuse syncope episodes (fainting) with seizures. Although I don't think that this is the case in your situation.

I have several friends that are epileptic and still drive, they really have to take care of themselves though.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Good luck with everything man, all the best.

paNX2K&SE-R

iTrader: (8)

This is great advice for you Wayne. The number one goal for people is to protect you from injury if you were to have another episode. This means preventing you from hitting your body (especially your head) on anything solid. Tell them to call 911 asap. Uncontrollable seizures (status epilepticus) can be life threatening and intervention using Diastat can be necessary to stop them so the sooner that first responders get there the better off you will be.

Just out of curiosity did you see, feel, taste, or smell anything unusual just before your event happened?

kaisersoze

iTrader: (8)

while a first time generalized seizure is no fun it certainly doesnt mean the end of driving. It sounds like you were worked up properly in the ER and the clean head CT is a good sign. You should definitely have the EEG and talk to a neurologist. The EEG will be helpful maybe in diagnosis more likely in giving you an idea of your risk of future seizures. Risk of recurrent seizures goes up considerably with an abnormal EEG. If your EEG is normal the rate of another seizure in the next 2 years is something like 25% so not that high.
There are a number of factors that can trigger seizures that have been mentioned already-metabolic factors like glucose, electrolytes(usually sodium-do you drink a LOT of water/soda? which can cause low sodium).
Things like stress, sleep deprivation often exacerbate seizures but probably don't cause them.
Caffiene or xanthines in tea might trigger seizures, numerous other meds like antidepressants, sleeping aids, antihistamines(even OTC), diet pills, herbal preparations etc can trigger seizure activity
Other common problems are alcohol or drug use-more typical with sudden quitting of these substances.
Overall odds are good this will never happen again, but if your physician recommends you take medication its a good idea to take it. The most common cause of recurrent seizures in patients with a known history of epilepsy is noncompliance with their medications.
And even it does happen again you are still not done driving as many people are well controlled on medications
Good luck

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Damn, this sucks dude. I hope everything works out well for you. Hopefully it was a one time thing and you wont have another occurrence.

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

Wow...that's really scary sound man. I've never involuntarily lost consciousness and **** like that scares the crap out of me.

wayne_curr

iTrader: (8)

Funny you mentioned it. As embarrassing as the whole ordeal was, I'm SO glad I didn't **** myself.

Curly: I was just brainstorming hypoglycemia. My glucose was 93 when the paramedics got there. Is it possible for it to have risen some in 15-20 minutes?

Kaiser: Thanks for putting it straight for me. I'm honestly planning for the worst at this point. The doctor said my electrolytes were fine and no I dont drink an abnormal amount of water though i do make an effort to stay hydrated at work. I tend to get dehydrated really quick. The last thing I remember before the seizure as a matter of fact was the water fountain. My memory stops there which is weird because they found me on the floor nearly 100 yards away from it. Also, yes I did see things before it happened. I'd say I had 5-10 minutes of lead time. I was actually up really high in the A steel in the cooler grabbing some cottage cheese to stock (The A steel is the highest shelves at costco, really tall) when I started feeling strange. I got down and went to the water fountain. There was a strange tunnel vision aspect to it and I felt like I was blinking in and out of consciousness already.

Thanks for the well wishes. Its still pretty scary to think about and my girlfriend is hardly sleeping at night because of it which makes it even harder for me. I have an appointment tomorrow with a PCP. I haven't had a regular doctor ever so I figure I had better get one now and get them involved in the whole thing.

Machismo

iTrader: (1)

Keep us posted... Scary stuff.

mgeoffriau

iTrader: (7)

I passed out once. I had jaw surgery my 2nd year of college and had my jaw wired shut (not really with wires anymore, they just use lots of rubber bands). The liquid diet did not agree with my fast metabolism and reactive hypoglycemia and I had a really hard time getting enough calories and protein to maintain weight (I lost 16 lbs in about 5 weeks, from 155 lbs down to 139).

I was in Restoration Hardware of all places, sitting in a chair flipping through a book while waiting on my family. I stood up and got that light-headed feeling that often accompanies standing up too quickly -- except the feeling didn't go away after a moment. Stupidly, I didn't sit back down, but instead tried to walk through the store to find a family member. I remember seeing my mom and saying the words "I'm okayyyy...." and then coming to a few moments later on my side on the floor. One of the store employees was a diabetic and had some emergency orange juice ready.

Weird feeling, and I'd like to never repeat it.

revlimiter

iTrader: (1)

I've only once woken up and not known who I was. Scary ****. I can't imagine an amberlamps ride and seizure worries on top of that.

Keep on top of your health! And good luck.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Glucose levels will rise in 10-15 minutes only if you have a glass of juice. And you have type one diabetis. 93 is a great number, and you're not describing hypoglycemic symptoms.