Second Seizure

My daughter Karen had a second seizure monday May 7th. Her first was November 6th, 2006. Since six months had gone by from when when she had had her first seizure, I was fairly confident that it had been an isolated incident, and would not happen again. So I am saddened by this second one, now she must take anti-seizure medicine. I hope we will know more, and get all my many questions answered, after she sees her neurologist next tuesday. A strange coincidence it seems to me is: both seizures happened on a monday, exactily 6 months apart to the day, both happened after she watched the show, Law and order. Both happened while she was asleep. What is really scary about this one is the fact that she was all alone at the time. But what a blessing that Zach just happened to call her and discover it soon after it happened. Thank you Jesus. I hope my daughters wont mind me borrowing their blog entries about the event. I could not have written it as well as they all did. And they pretty much covered everything. Here are their blogs, starting with of course "KARENS" view of what happened.
"Search and Seisure"

I see that both my sisters have both beat me in posting this, but I am going to tell it from my view, since the majority of the drama happened to me. So here is my story:

I woke up yesterday morning on the couch to the sound of my cell phone alarm. I had fallen asleep on the couch the night before, so waking up there did not alarm me...Zach, who was 62 miles away for a "Rotation" for Pharmacy School (kind of like an internship that he doesn't get paid for since he is getting college credit for it,) called me soon after my alarm went off and I was saying things like, "blood is all over the couch and floor," "where am I where am I?" "I am confused!" "Why are there clothes all over chair?" I was also talking about how I had to get to work, then about the blood again, then the clothes and my confusion....all in a mixed up mess! Apparently sometime early that morning sometime (7ish?), I had had the seisure and somehow fell off the couch and hit my nose on the floor, hence the blood on the floor (from my nose and face) and then regained just enough state of mind to crawl back up on to the couch. Just like last time when I'd had state of mind enough to cover myself (I was only wearing undergarments that time) in front of the police and EMT.


So Zach told me to WAIT, that he was calling Cindy to come get me. I think that is when I discovered the crustiness on my face, I went into the bathroom and saw that it was dried blood. I wiped it off as best my fuddled mind could and sat down and waited. I don't remember much after Cindy got there, I just remember she got there really quick! I remember walking into the emergency room and waiting a minute, then they showed me to a bed.


Once I was lying in the bed I remember coming a little more out of my disoriented confused state of mind. I remember several nurses/doctors came in and I had to tell them the story over and over. Then Zach got there (he drove the 62 miles in less than 45 minutes!) He calmed me down some more and it was nice having two family members around. After about three hours, the nurses came in and said they were bringing me upstairs to a room as there had a been a trama (we learned later that two vans collided in town and lots of people were injured!) and they need our emergency bed. This was fine with me, last time I had a seizure, it took about 6 hours to get upstairs.


I had a total of two CAT scans while there--one yesterday morning, before I was out of ER and the other this morning. Yesterday they found blood on my brain which was abnormal, but not too threating. On the Scan this morning, they found that the bloodhad not increased which meant that it was either a very slow leak, or just from hitting my head the day before during my seisure, no active bleeding (very relieving.)


It was wonderful having so much family and friends come visit me. Amber surprised us and came up, as well as my Mommy, Denis and Glenda, Jeremy, Ryan and Joanna, Nikki some friends from church and one of my coworkers(Ginny). It really is kinda exciting when the nurse has to kick all your visitors out so you, the patient, can get some rest hehe.

You can see where I must have rug-burned my nose when I seizured...




Around 11ish this morning, the nurse said she was going to try and get me up and walking. She had to strap this pink belt strap around my waist so if I fell down, she could catch me and let me down easy...first thing I thought of was that pink harness mom used to strap to Cindy so she wouldn't wander away (possibly me too at some point.) :) Then I was a little embarrased when I saw another nurse using the same thing on a crippled 80-some-year-old woman. Hehe!


Well, I am home now...and walking around woozily like a drunken person! I'm also really sore and feel wiped out. Zach says it's from the injected seizure meds from yesterday. My Doctor said he doesn't want me to go to work until my nuerologist sees me next tuesday...


Here is the white board that my family wrote/drew on for me. Mostly personal "jokes" that most people might not get. Mom took this picture before Zach and Ryan had written on it. Zach wrote later ,"Love you Dubba!" and Ryan wrote, "I CU.
"Seizure Wakeup" CINDYS BLOG:

This morning around 7:30, my brother in law woke me up with his call (he is out of town for his Pharamcy rotation). He told me that i needed to go get Karen, he had called her and she was disoriented, confused, and bleeding, he said she had had another seizure like back in November. My drive there was very quick, even though Murphy's Law had placed a school bus in front of me. I was so scared of what i would find, Zach did not explain much since he had only talked to her on the phone. I was so worried she would try and go to work confused before i got there! She was laying on the couch talking to Zach on the phone, and i saw the pool of blood on the floor next to the couch. We think she apparantly fell of the couch during her seizure hitting her head on the floor, she has a mark on her nose, and we think rug burn on her forhead. I was so worried and trying to keep my calm to get her to the hospital, she was very disoriented, and confused. We got her there, she has to stay the night in the hospital since the Catscan showed blood on her brain, Karen doesn't have a history of seizures...They are putting her on seizure medicines now. My sister Amber and Mom came into town to be with Karen today also(zach came back too). They are all at the hospital though, but im too tired to be there tonight, long day. Ill just stay home tonight to worry and pray. "Another Seizure"
BY AMBER on Monday, May 7, 2007 at 8:36 pm

Karen had another seizure this morning. This time she was home alone when it happened, but luckily her husband Zach called her not long after it happened. (Zach was in Fort Collins, starting his rotation for pharmacy school.) He could tell that she was confused and not herself, so he immediately called my other sister, Cindy, to take her to the hospital. The doctors were able to determine that Karen had another seizure. We think it happened around seven in the morning, but she doesn’t remember anything. She woke up with blood on her face and there was a pool of blood on the floor. She has a bump on her nose and something that appears to be rug burn on her face, so we think she fell off of the couch (where she had been sleeping) onto the floor and got a bloody nose in the midst of the seizing.

Karen is doing better tonight, but she has to stay in the hospital overnight because a CAT scan showed blood on her brain. Since this is her second seizure, the doctors are advising that she needs to take medication for them now. I am here at the hospital with her now, along with Mom and Zach. Cindy was here most of the day too. I am glad I live close enough to drive up here and be with everyone right now.