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Originally Posted by Bruins88
Yea it was rather annoying. I laid there for about five minutes and they said I was falling asleep then made me do the other stuff. I may have dozed off again after it but I honestly dont think I did. I was exhausted so maybe I did. I dont know why I did that back arching small convulsion thing though. That was really odd for me. Lady said after the hyperventilating and lights I was laying down for a half hour. Sure only felt like a few minutes but maybe im wrong and did doze off a little. I just remember clearly at the beginning of the test I was falling asleep and they made me do that stuff. Dont know maybe they had gotten what they needed in that few minutes time. Oh and to be clear the first eeg was 20 minutes (the non sleep deprived) this one (sleep deprived) was probably 45 minutes or so. They thought it was a non sleep deprived and I had to show them the drs report saying he wanted it sleep deprived and she said she would note that.
As of now dr is treating me with depakote to be safe. The hospital usually uploads their reports or labs ect instantly to the patient portal as soon as the report is done. Not even up on that yet. Ill call again tomorrow see what's going on.
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ok.. so now it does sound like you may have slept. When patients sleep, the test always seems shorter than it really is. When I'm running an exam and a patient has a seizure (both electrographic and clinical) during the exam, I always go in there. I test their responsiveness, check for stiffness, make clinical observations that don't always show up clearly on the video (i.e. are eyelids twitching?). I would always immediately inform the epileptologist. I make notes about my clinical observations on the EEG recording. With all of that going on, the patient or family are generally aware they had a seizure. However, other hospitals may have their own protocols that are different from the ones I follow.
What really surprises me is that your report is not yet available. Your physician should be driving them nuts and calling every hour for the results. If there are any abnormalities on there, then I'd
really be upset.
In any event, if it comes out normal and you continue to have symptoms, the next step would be an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit where you would be hooked up in a more secure way and kept in the hospital for at least 24 hours - hopefully to capture one of your episodes.
With respect to the concern about "convergence disorder" or whatever, that would be referring to episodes that are non-epileptic in nature and believed to be caused by stress/anxiety. Epileptic means it is coming from excessive synchronous firing of neurons in the brain. Non-epileptic can be caused by a lot of different things. Dehydration that causes an imbalance in electrolytes is a big one. Another non-epileptic type seizure is what can happen to juvenile diabetics. They take insulin, and if their blood sugar drops too low, they can have a seizure - but it is not an epileptic seizure and does not need treatment with medications. I have juvenile diabetes and actually had one yesterday morning - first time in probably 8 years. My blood sugar registered as 17 by the paramedics that my kids called. Anyway, non-epileptic seizures can also be caused by stress and anxiety. Those are episodes that generally improve with psychological support. It is not uncommon for teens who are being abused in some fashion to have non-epileptic seizures. It's like a cry for help that gets them in front of people who can hopefully figure out what's going on and get them in a safe place.
That said, you've also described migraines with auras. That is not uncommon. I had a 13 y/o girl patient who had a long string of auras that looked like a stroke before she had the migraine. Her EEG was a mess too (for 24 hrs after the migraine). She had basilar artery migraines. Anyway, you do seem to have a lot going on that deserves a thorough investigation. Longer monitoring in an EMU would be helpful, especially if you have episodes frequently.