What is the first image that comes to the mind of a person when they hear the word, ‘seizure’? My guess is that for most, they see a writhing person on the ground, not conscious of their surroundings- an immediate medical emergency.
It is important to note in order to become medically literate, that there are over 100 different types of seizures. This article will not attempt to name them all or describe them all. It will clearly state the signs and symptoms of a simple partial seizure.
Hopefully, it will enlighten and inform, and help you recognize a condition that I believe I had been experiencing for at least four years.
It took a simple partial seizure to bring me to an emergency room the day I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And it was only after that diagnosis that I learned that 1/3 of all brain tumors first present with a seizure. I also realized that I had probably been having these types of seizures for several years. But, because, I had been wrongly diagnosed and was already on an anti-seizure drug, the extent of the seizures were easily masked.
This is how the seizure that brought me to the emergency room began. I was standing in the kitchen making lunch for my grandson and I. We had just gotten home from the Y, where I exercised three times a week.
Suddenly, I felt as if I had gotten the sun in my eye, and couldn’t get it out. The glare was overwhelming. I felt shaky, and kept thinking the glare would leave. Then I looked at my grandson and he began to split in half, and then become two. I was terrified. This was happening and I was alone with a three year old child.
I called 911 immediately. I felt as if I were in an unreal state. Dreamlike. I took my grandson’s hand and we sat in the living room until the paramedics came. During the waiting I had feelings of impending doom, and of course, I was scared to death. Throughout it all, I saw flashing lights, white sparkles.
When the two paramedics arrived, I was unable to see them both at one time. I learned later, though, that this was a part of the brain tumor visual field damage that was taking place. As they talked to me and took all my vitals, the episode gradually dissipated and I told them I would not be going to the hospital. That statement changed when my daughter arrived and forced me to go.
Throughout it all, though, I was conscious. Not until I came home six hours later, with the diagnosis, brain tumor, did I realize I had dropped all of the food I was making for my grandson and I on the floor.
A seizure is a result of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. A simple partial seizure affects a small part of the brain. They can come before larger seizures, and result in a complex partial seizure or tonic-clonic seizure.
Simple partial seizures can be neglected and not taken seriously because through it all consciousness is preserved. The symptoms, such as inexplicable fear, sadness and nausea, distorted sense of hearing, seeing, (for me the visual distortions were astounding) sensory illusions or hallucinations for many, are waved off.
Textbook definitions relate amnesia surrounding the seizure event. For example, I had no recollection of dropping the food in the kitchen. déjà vu or jamiais vu, opposite ends of the same coin- one being a feeling of familiarity, while the latter is a complete lack of unfamiliarity. Onlookers or those who are with you might be talking to you and you are not aware they are doing so–you have “drifted off’.
I could look back over a period of four years, and notice similar events, all neglected, somewhat frightening – but not so much that I would call a doctor or go to the emergency room.
This time, though, even I could not neglect the fact that a threatening episode had taken place. This time, this seizure led me to the emergency room – and to a the diagnosis that would -in the end- save my life.
