Yesterday, I had yet another seizure. It may only be my 3rd this year but it still destroys me each and every time. I have had epilepsy now for 5 years. I have primary generalised epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizures (these are the classic kind).
We had been out the night before and my flatmate (S) made us a cooked breakfast. We ate that and then washed up. Whilst washing up I began to have an aura. This is a detection or an early warning sign that a seizure is going to happen. My right arm had started spasming and moving towards the top left corner of the room and then stopped. I brushed it off and told myself it wasn’t going to happen.
I had gone upstairs and been a bit sick. Cleaned my self off and then went downstairs whilst S was going to get a shower. I went downstairs and joined S’s mum. I started to put some rubbish into a bag and that is the last thing I remember. Eventually I came round to see S and her mum sat by me at the stairs. I knew what had happened. Apparently during this time my arm raised straight up and then I began fitting. S’s mum had dealt with seizures before so she was able to prevent me from hurting my head. When I came round I apparently kept trying to get up and was very disorientated. I don’t remember much other than giving S the wrong passcode for my phone (apparently multiple times) until eventually she managed to get through to my dad. I also remember the ambulance control ringing S back to let her know that a crew was coming to me but there were a lot of emergencies. I think we waited about an hour for them to get to me. I know that somehow I moved from being near the stairs facing inwards to facing the opposite way for when the ambulance got to us. I don’t remember if they had sirens on or hearing them come in the house. There were 3 paramedics, two male and one female. They asked questions, did my blood pressure, pulse and blood sugars and two heart traces. They asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said yes.
S came with me. We had the worst ambulance ride ever. They had put me on one of the seats and it just kept bashing from side to side making me more nauseous. We got to the hospital and they sat me in a wheelchair then took me through to triage. The doctor who triaged me was incredibly beautiful. Even in my dazed state I knew how beautiful she was. She took my blood pressure, some details and some bloods. Then me and S had to sit in the waiting room for a couple of hours. I felt so awful. I was incredibly sore, uncomfortable and dizzy but I was glad to have the company. Another doctor finally saw me and was asking me lots of questions. I had to tell him about the purging etc. He said that I have a higher amount of white cells in my blood which usually indicate an infection and that may be one that is just brewing under the surface at the moment. He gave me antibiotics for that. He is also going to write to my GP and refer me on to another specialist in Huddersfield instead of going back to Manchester.
I am still drained from it all, have a really sore tongue and achy muscles. But I am okay. I just hate epilepsy. I wish I didn’t have it. But because my seizure pattern is so irregular then I never know if I have actually stopped.