Mom had a grand mal siezure

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So I live relatively close to my parents. I hadn’t spoken to them in in a few weeks when my mom calls on Saturday. She asks me when was the last time she had talked to me, I say ‘few weeks’. She then tells me that on Thursday night she was laying in bed reading when she had a grand mal seizure. Both my parents are RN’s, my dad with years of ER and ICU experience. I won’t go into details, but after a ‘few minutes’ (her words), she came out of it. Says it freaked her out, but she’s ok. They didn’t call an ambulance or go the ER. Said she had called Friday am and made an appointment with her doctor. Naturally I’m freaking out, but she says don’t worry. I calm down, everything is ok. She asks if I recieved an invitation to the wedding of an old family friend who is getting hitched next month. I had, and the conversation becomes somewhat normal.

Sunday. Mom and dad buy a new washer and dryer set and ask to borrow my pickup to haul it. Not a problem. It takes them most of the day, and return the pickup Sunday evening. Mom seems normal.

Tonight mom stops by on her way home from work, asks when the last time we had talked, and before I could answer begins to tell me about this grand mal seizure she had last week. Exact same conversation we had on Saturday.

:eek:

Then tells me that, guess what? They bought a new washer and dryer!

:eek:

And: did we get a wedding invitation to the family friend’s wedding next month?

:eek:

And during this conversation she’s using the wrong words… like ‘apartment’ instead of ‘department’.

:eek:
Now, being the good son, I immediately point out that most of what she has told me I already knew, and did you forget that MY pickup was used to haul the new washer and dryer?? She, obviously had, then told me she had caught herself repeating phrases and questions.

My mom has been a hospital administrator for almost 20 years. She forgets no details, big or small, and now she’s forgetting whole conversions; entire days.

Her doctor appointment was with a worthless pain doc. Not her PCP. He advised her to stop taking a newly-prescribed antidepressant, which she had the foresight to do already. PCP is out of town. She tried calling a neurologist and couldn’t figure out why nobody was answering, just a voicemail. She consulted the phone book, directory assistance and Google, and was sure she had the right number. Perhaps the number has been changed recently, she thinks.

She called at 12.15 pm. Lunchtime. Never did figure out why there was no answer until I pointed it out.

She’s an RN and doesn’t seem to realise the seriousness of this, or more precisely, thinks she’s doing better than she is. She is 56, healthy except for knee problems, and has a family history of depression and suicide, but no physical neurological problems (tumor, cancer, etc). I’m barely on speaking terms with my dad and he has a non-controlling approach. Near as I can fell he’s not pressuring her into seeing a neurologist. She obviously knows that she needs to see one, but not immediately.

Don’t know what to do, but this is frustrating and extremely scary. Thanks for reading.

2

Scary, indeed.

I know how it feels, when it seems like a parent isn’t really taking a medical situation as seriously as they should. I hope she follows through and sees someone who can help.
-D/a

3

OP … Ima give you some unsolicited advice.

PITCH A FIT!

Do whatever you have to do to get her to see a neurologist. Bribery, cry, promise to name your firstborn daughter after her, whatever.

I lost my mom in February and only a few days ago did I discover, while reading her medical records, how sick she really was. She had all sorts of stuff going on with her brain - I had no idea and I don’t think she knew, either. It all made sense once I saw her MRIs, though - explained why her concentration was terrible the last few years and why she couldn’t come up with the words she wanted to use in conversation. I wish I’d known what I know now a year ago … maybe she’d still be here, at least for a while longer.

IANAD, and I’m not saying anything is gonna happen to your mom anytime soon. But this is NOT normal. Might be from the seizure (wouldn’t be surprising), might be early onset dementia, might be the effects of chronic ischemic white matter disease (what my mom had). The brain is amazingly adaptable, though, and there are some awesome medications out there these days (Aricept comes to mind).

Nurses are notorious for not taking care of themselves. You’re going to have to put your foot down.

Is she 100% sure she had a grand mal seizure? Like I said IANAD but without a history of seizures I’d wonder if maybe she didn’t have a TIA or even a minor stroke.

hugs Good luck!

4

Seconded, thirded, etc… the memory issues, especially coming on that suddenly, are NOT a good sign.

Have you spoken with your father about this? I know you say you barely speak to him, but this could be quite serious and you need to persuade him to, well, kick your mom’s butt (figuratively!!) and get her to a doctor NOW. As in, maybe to an ER.

I’d bet if he called some neurologists offices and explained what the symptoms are, they’d fit her in very quickly.

Seizure might be a symptom of something else which is also triggering the memory loss / aphasia (not sure if that’s the right word for mixed-up words, I think of it as not being able to find the right word when you need it), the seizure might have been triggered by a stroke, or something else.

To be blunt: your mother’s judgement is OBVIOUSLY impaired - between the memory loss, and inability to figure out things like lunch hour, you and your father CANNOT let her handle this.

5

Someone very close to me has a seizure disorder as a result of removing a brain tumor a few months ago. The memory thing and the wrong word thing, are both effects of the seizure in his case. It gets better as the days pass. In other words, the first hour after the seizure I have to have the same conversations over and over. Once, he asked me what “awkward” meant. Three hours later, when he seemed to be getting his faculties back, I asked him what it meant and he was able to tell me (and didn’t use the same words I’d used to define it for him earlier). A week later and he can remember conversations we had yesterday again and remembers what words mean and uses the correct words that he intends to. A month later and you’d never know he’d had one.

Seizures can be triggered by dozens of things, so it’s really important to get a neurologist to pinpoint the cause and possibly introduce meds to prevent this from happening again. My friend’s seizures are triggered by trying to wean himself off the meds. Your mom could have a tumor, a brain bleed, or dog only knows what. She needs a CT and a good neurologist, stat.

6

For all you or she knows, she could have had a mini-stroke. eeps. If I were you I’d load her into my truck and drive her to the emergency room and order every test. Especially the brain ones.

She cannot be functioning properly at work like this. Maybe you can frame it as “Would you rather lose your job or go to the doctor? Okay, let’s go now.”

7

I also agree she doesn’t sound capable of consenting right now. Talk to your dad if you have to, but it’d be better to just take her and answer questions later. Obviously there’s not nothing wrong with her, despite what she is saying. I don’t know what’s wrong with your dad, but if my spouse was exhibiting these characteristics I’d have taken them to the hospital 3 hours ago… you know?

8

If there is nothing really *wrong *with her, the MRI’s and CAT scans will rule out any issues. Take her to the ER along with any meds she has been taking.

Also, call her office and ask them if they’ve noticed anything funny about your mom. She if she’s been ‘off’ at work.

There are so many variables here that it could or could not be, two basic tests could rule out a buttload of future heart aches.
Keep us up to date with whats going on!

9

Is it possible that she had a second seizure in the last day or so, and didn’t say anything, because she didn’t want you to worry?

I’m an epileptic, and seizures can leave you with “hangovers” for a day or so, where you’re really out of it, you can stumble over common words, forget things, etc.

10

Can you post back how your mom is doing? {huggle}

11

Time for an update, for what its worth.

Both my parents are RNs. My dad has experience in ICU, ER, and med-surg. Mom has spent most of her career in mental health and administration. This means that a), both of them are mule-stubborn and b), they think they, between the two of them, know enough about medical issues that most doctors are a waste of time.

I asked mom if she finally got ahold of a neurologist. She said she did, his office requires a referral from her PCP. She says that’s been done and has an appointment for sometime at the end of august to see him. So we’ve made it that far. She refuses to go to ER for a CAT or an MRI.

Fit has been pitched, no results.

My relationship with my parents is strained, to put it mildly. I’m on good ground with my mom, not my dad. We remain civil, and that’s stretching it. I have a younger brother who is the quintessential loser, who happens to live in a dilapidated Winnebago on my parents property. He’s worthless in more ways than I can count, and on this issue he’s basically taking their side. ‘No worries, mon. Smoke a bowl and everyhing will be ok’. Asshole. I’m sorta the black sheep (because, you know, I’m not a loser), so my suggestions have fallen on deaf ears, despite the obvious relevance in this case.

I cannot call her office and start asking questions to her coworkers. HIPPA prevents them from answering (if they’re smart), and that would just make people suspicious of her and start questioning her behavior. Not ok, but I did consider it.

I have no idea if she’s had any more seizures; she certainly hasn’t told me of any. She is still driving. They live ten miles out in the country, she has no choice if she has to go to work.

She is still forgetting conversations, although thats the only thing that seems to worry her about all this – memory loss.

Still dont know what to do. Guess I’m gonna have to stand on the sidelines and watch and see what happens.

I do want to thank you all for reading a big hug to those who responded. New dopers seem to get snubbed by the established dopers; its good to know there are a lot of people out there who care. Life is hard right now and I’m fighting some old demons, hopefully hanging out on this message board will provide some much needed therapy and friendship.

13

New onset, unprovoked seizures in middle aged patients are bad news.

She needs an MRI.

She shouldn’t be driving or working as an RN if she is having amnesia as bad as you describe.

Sorry, good luck =(.

14

I realize this is a reawakened thread, but Lancia, can we get an update?

15

Yeah I was thinking about this thread not too long ago …