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Unexplained ongoing seizures?
My father is 60 years old and has never had a seizure in his life up until last thursday evening. It was your well known "Grand-mal" seizure and we immediately called 911. After that he continued to have seizures, just milder, throughout the night and next day. He was put on anti-seizure meds but was still seizing. He was given an Ativin drip but was still seizing. He had an episode every 2-3 hours for the next few days. It was like clock work. They did an 2 MRI's and 2 CT scans. The first MRI and CT scan showed nothing. Blood work showed some low levels of sodium and potassium but other than that is vitals were good. He had one more very short seizure that left him spaced out. After all of his other seizures he would be spacey and wouldnt speak for up to 20 minutes but always came back. This one left him blank for almost 24 hours. He wouldnt sleep or close his eyes. He wouldnt say or acknowledge us. He just stared.
He was transferred to another hospital to have an EEG done and had it on for almost 2 days. He started speaking again but his short-term memory was virtually non-existent. During the time of the EEG he had no seizures and his memory was coming back. They were getting ready to discharge him when he had a simple focalized seizure. Totally different from the seizures he was having a few days before that. He was fully aware and conscious and was in clear pain. His right arm was completely stretched out and his right leg was shaking viciously. The right side of his face was stiff and cramped up. Ever since then, he has been unable to feel anything in the right side of his body. He also cannot lift up his right arm. He can barely move his right leg. They did another MRI and it showed some mild swelling in his frontal lobe. They weren't sure if it was from the previous seizures or infection so they did more blood work. The blood work came out negative and they were talking about a possible spinal tap.
Again, he went 2 more days without a seizure. They were getting ready to discharge him and were going to treat the swelling and for addiction. They figured the seizures were over and the most important thing was to treat his swelling, do some physical therapy for his arm and leg and get him into an outpatient rehab. Assuming his body was just collapsing under all of the medication.
(Sidenote: My dad has several degenerative back diseases and has chronic back pain. He has been on muscle relaxers and painkillers heavily for the last 5 years. He has lost 100lbs and is very thin)
Just a couple of hours ago, right before discharge, my dad started seizing again. And hasn't really been able to stop. It's focalized so, he is again aware. He is in pain and the doctors are calling this a rare case. None of the ant-seizure meds are working and they seem out of ideas. Besides the spinal tap, what else is there to do? What is going on with my dad? Should we get a second opinion? Any suggestions would be great.
4 Answers
- formerly_bobLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
Seizures that show up like this might be from side effect of medications (find out what he has been taking, if anything), stroke (ask the doc if stroke or mini-strokes could go undetected with the diagnostics he has had), hemorrhage (maybe micro bleeds could escape detection), electrolyte imbalance, infections, toxins, and tumors. You can almost certainly rule out tumors, and it seems the docs would have pursued the sodium and potassium levels if they suspected a problem with electrolyte imbalance. It looks like the docs are pursuing infection as the most likely possibility. Toxins are unlikely unless you father works with chemicals.
If the docs can come up with anything ask them if they know of another of specialist or expert that might be helpful.
- Anonymous8 years ago
Have you had a 2nd opinion done? I would definitely suggest a 2nd opinion be done. Get a copy of all his images and submit them to 2ndradiologyopinion.com.
It is a great website that can help you figure out what is going on with your father and come up with a treatment plan.
Source(s): I am a physician. - Anonymous5 years ago
Yes, why are you asking? Are you depressed right now? If so, don't worry, it'll pass, no matter how serious you consider it. Just do things you like, things that do not let you think about the issue that makes you depressed.