On May 19th, 2022 I had my very first seizure. It was grand mal, and a fairly severe one at that. I was at work when it happened, and I work for a local hospital, so luckily I have some idea of what it looked like/what happened while I was unconscious.
Symptoms during seizure included;
Eyes open, twitching
3-4min grand mal
Turning blue/lack of oxygen
HR 170
Symptoms 24 hrs leading to seizure included;
Nausea
Congestion
Broken sleep night before
Lethargic
Irritable
Symptoms immediately post seizure included;
Confusion
Inability to identify my co-workers
Inability to tell EMS where I was (at work)
Inability to remember my fiances last name
Inability to sit up/stand/walk on my own
Symptoms first week post seizure included;
Off balance
Twitching/flinching
Short term memory loss
Struggles with basic problem solving
I have zero personal history and zero family history of seizures. When the seizure started and I fell unconscious, I was just sitting at the nurses station doing my paperwork. There was a lot of external stimuli as I work in psych and had a few patients feeling especially irritable and loud at that time, but this wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before.
I have no current life stressors, but it is possible that past life stressors accumulated subconsciously and have something to do with this episode. I was especially irritable before the seizure started as I was feeling unwell (reference symptoms 24hrs. leading to seizure above). Metabolic causes crossed my mind as with my nausea, I was not eating much of anything. The day before this seizure, I was told in therapy we would be starting EMDR to face and heal from past trauma, which was difficult for me to hear.
As of right now, the neurologist I've seen cant find a proper cause for this grand mal seizure. Ive had an MRI, CT scan, EEG, two blood draws, two urinalysis, and one blood sugar check. No abnormal electrical activity was found, but supposedly this isn't unusual with it being post-seizure. I have been told we must now wait for me to have another seizure, IF I have another seizure, before we can continue to a diagnosis. At this time I am to notify the doctor of any new symptoms in the future, and have a follow up appointment in August. I have been given an emergency medication that would have to be administered by someone else, but otherwise I'm on my own.
Do you have any thoughts on all of this? Any facts? Anything you can tell me or guide me to that could help? Thank you in advance.