Josh's Adventures with Syncope and Seizures
Josh worked at a scout camp this last summer. He would go up on Sunday after church and come home Saturday morning. One Saturday he came home with a scab on his forehead and the news that one day that week, he had fallen asleep and fallen off the bench he had been sitting on and hit his head. He had been up late the night before and nodded off during one of the classes.
One day in mid-September, I received a phone call from the school nurse to tell me that Josh had fallen asleep during class, and again fell off his chair and hit his head on the ground. At first I thought it was a recurrence of what had happened at scout camp, but when I asked him about it after school, I became a little suspicious. He said this time he hadn't been feeling particularly sleepy. He had gotten a feeling of déjà vu and a headache before falling asleep suddenly. That sounded remarkably like how I feel when I have a seizure.
At 6:21 AM yesterday morning I received a text from John, who was at seminary. "Josh just fell out of his chair with a seizure for about 15 seconds. He seems fine now." When I talked to John a little later, he said Josh had been twitching a little while he was unconscious. Josh, however, seemed fine, and he had a student performance of the play he is in at the school that day that he didn't want to miss, so I let him go on to school. I called the doctor and made an appointment for Josh to go in that evening.
That afternoon Hannah and I were returning home from running errands when I received a text from Josh. "Hey my head hurts a lot more than it did, can you excuse me for seventh so I can rest at home?" We picked him up from school and gave him a ride home, and he slept much of the afternoon. He said the whole back of his head hurt.
That evening, I had a presidency meeting, so Steven took Josh to his doctor's appointment. The appointment was set for 6:45.
At 8:08, Steven sent me a text. "The Dr lady wants Josh to get a CT scan. We're over in the ER department now. Looks like it may be awhile. At least he brought a book to read..."
At 8:22, "ER doctor doesn't think he needs a CT scan. Will check his blood and maybe an EKG test to see if anything is wrong with the heart, but more likely it is a neurology thing. Will give us a referral."
8:41, "They finished the EKG and blood work. They say it may be 45 min to get the results back though."
9:32, "We might be getting out soon!"
A few minutes before 10 PM, Steven and Josh returned home. Diagnosis: Syncope and collapse, Observed seizure-like activity. He still had the headache; the doctors apparently weren't concerned about it. Josh has another appointment with his primary care doctor scheduled for Monday morning.
Through all this, I've felt remarkably calm. (I'm on a new seizure medication now and feeling a lot better emotionally!) I feel like I know what he's experiencing. I know that seizures by themselves are relatively harmless - they become dangerous if they last more than 5 minutes, if multiple seizures occur without waking up fully in between, or if the person having the seizure is driving or doing something equally dangerous. For Josh, my biggest concern is his tendency to fall out of his chair and hit his head on the floor. Hopefully he will learn to recognize the déjà vu feeling and get himself in a safe position if it happens again. Hopefully he will get on a medication that will stop them from happening without the bad side effects. And I'm sorry that this tendency to have seizures is apparently hereditary and he got it from me.
One day in mid-September, I received a phone call from the school nurse to tell me that Josh had fallen asleep during class, and again fell off his chair and hit his head on the ground. At first I thought it was a recurrence of what had happened at scout camp, but when I asked him about it after school, I became a little suspicious. He said this time he hadn't been feeling particularly sleepy. He had gotten a feeling of déjà vu and a headache before falling asleep suddenly. That sounded remarkably like how I feel when I have a seizure.
At 6:21 AM yesterday morning I received a text from John, who was at seminary. "Josh just fell out of his chair with a seizure for about 15 seconds. He seems fine now." When I talked to John a little later, he said Josh had been twitching a little while he was unconscious. Josh, however, seemed fine, and he had a student performance of the play he is in at the school that day that he didn't want to miss, so I let him go on to school. I called the doctor and made an appointment for Josh to go in that evening.
That afternoon Hannah and I were returning home from running errands when I received a text from Josh. "Hey my head hurts a lot more than it did, can you excuse me for seventh so I can rest at home?" We picked him up from school and gave him a ride home, and he slept much of the afternoon. He said the whole back of his head hurt.
That evening, I had a presidency meeting, so Steven took Josh to his doctor's appointment. The appointment was set for 6:45.
At 8:08, Steven sent me a text. "The Dr lady wants Josh to get a CT scan. We're over in the ER department now. Looks like it may be awhile. At least he brought a book to read..."
At 8:22, "ER doctor doesn't think he needs a CT scan. Will check his blood and maybe an EKG test to see if anything is wrong with the heart, but more likely it is a neurology thing. Will give us a referral."
8:41, "They finished the EKG and blood work. They say it may be 45 min to get the results back though."
9:32, "We might be getting out soon!"
A few minutes before 10 PM, Steven and Josh returned home. Diagnosis: Syncope and collapse, Observed seizure-like activity. He still had the headache; the doctors apparently weren't concerned about it. Josh has another appointment with his primary care doctor scheduled for Monday morning.
Through all this, I've felt remarkably calm. (I'm on a new seizure medication now and feeling a lot better emotionally!) I feel like I know what he's experiencing. I know that seizures by themselves are relatively harmless - they become dangerous if they last more than 5 minutes, if multiple seizures occur without waking up fully in between, or if the person having the seizure is driving or doing something equally dangerous. For Josh, my biggest concern is his tendency to fall out of his chair and hit his head on the floor. Hopefully he will learn to recognize the déjà vu feeling and get himself in a safe position if it happens again. Hopefully he will get on a medication that will stop them from happening without the bad side effects. And I'm sorry that this tendency to have seizures is apparently hereditary and he got it from me.
Comments
Post a Comment