A friend came to visit on Saturday as usual.
By evening I could tell something was wrong and went to bed early.
On Sunday I was feeling quite rotten. I wondered whether going out would perhaps perk me up a bit, but deep down knew from long experience that I was kidding myself. As it turned out I ended up going to sleep most of the afternoon, unable even to watch television.
That night I started having a large amount of seizures.
I have had epilepsy for roughly 15 years. Most people wouldn't recognise my seizures if they saw them. They don't look anything like the tonic clonic seizures you see on TV!
I have simple partial seizures, where I stay conscious, but twitch, smell bleach even though it isn't there, feel sick, get deja vu, see the room become small as though seen through the wrong end of a telescope, get a floating sensation, have trouble understanding what people are saying. To an onlooker I may just look a little distant. It only lasts seconds, at most 15-20.
The seizure itself isn't too troublesome, even if it doesn't feel very nice.
I have some of these every week anyway and can mostly deal with them, as I usually only have one or two at a time. I can usually carry on with what I am doing as soon as it stops. Most people don't know I've had one even if they are with me at the time.
The problem comes if I have several one after the other in quick succession with little breaks. It does make me very tired afterwards. I have trouble with thinking, concentrating and memory. I may start to have trouble finding my words and talking. I may find it difficult simply following a conversation. I do things in the wrong order. And I mean the simplest of things. I have, for instance tried going through a door before opening it... (that didn't turn out so well).
What is also bad is when they develop into a complex partial seizure where I lose consciousness. Then I tend to chew my lip to bits and I feel absolutely terrible afterwards. I can be confused to the point that I don't know where I am, even in my own home. I lose sensation all down my right side and have trouble using it for a while afterwards.
From Sunday 30th March to Wednesday 2nd April I had lots of episodes of "clusters" of simple partial seizures, nocturnal seizures and several generalised partial seizures.
I felt terrible.
There was no question of me leaving the flat in my wheelchair as my policy is not to drive it if I am having generalised seizures. It isn't just my own safety I am worried about but everyone else's.
After Wednesday the seizures went back to their usual pattern with just the odd partial seizure here and there and some nocturnal seizures.
It took until the weekend before I really started to feel like myself again though.
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