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Husband Ill - reality check for me! (Read 12038 times)
billycat
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Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Jun 23rd, 2007, 6:47am
 
Hi RLR and everyone,

I have had a real reality check over the last week with regards to my "ailments"... My husband collapsed early last Friday morning and had what we think were siezures (not confirmed yet). It was the most frightening experience of my life - however - I dealt with it and I am still dealing with it. In a funny way, it has been an enourmous reality check for me. I heard him go down in the bathroom and couldn't get to him because he'd blocked the door. I had fleeting thoughts of "oh my God I CANNOT cope with this"  - but I absolutley HAD to - I had to push the door and get my arm in to hold his head.

To cut a long story short - the hospital told us that for a man of his age to collapse like that (three times! he is 35) it would most likely to be his heart or an epilectic episode.  I couldn't believe it as I'M the one with the 'funny' heart and  'funny brain'.  

My husband is out of hospital now - after having a couple of heart tests done which they said were ok. We now have a referral to see a neurologist for more tests probably.

I have thought over the last week that my life is now going to be different, both because of this, and because of me making it different.  I realised that my poor husband has almost been a carer for me over the last 5 years or so - and for WHAT??? There's nothing wrong with me - and I've only just realised it!!!

The thought of losing him - and the thought of him being ill with anything - has made me realise just how strong I really am. I have spent the last God knows how many years worrying and wittling about every little feeling and 'symptom' in my body - and looking for reassurance from my family, books, internet etc etc. And actually, nothing really has happened to me at all!! How many wasted years! My husband actually HAS been ill - and he didn't spend the week before 'knowing' that he would take ill - it just happened out of the blue - as it most often does I guess.

So, I wanted to share this with you all, not in a patronising way, but I thought that maybe it might strike a cord with some of you. I'm not saying that my ectopics have miraculously gone - or the anxiety for that matter - but something has definately changed inside me, I think a lot of the fear has gone. So watch this space!!


RLR - my husband woke up at around 6am with a very bad cramp in his lower left calf. He got up and went to the bathroom, collapsed and was 'out' for  few seconds, then came round in a cold sweat -got up, went to the loo and collapsed again. This time he was gurgling and shaking for probably less than 30 seconds - then came round again. Got up eventually, lay on the end of the bed and was exhausted. I called an ambulance and when they got to him, he 'went' again and shook again. His temp was 34.7 and then he just wanted to sleep for hours. He was dazed but coherent. It took about four hours for him to come round properly in hospital.
The doctors told us that he had quite a slow heart rate at times (54/55 bpm) but weren't worried about it. He had a "thick head" for a few days afterwards but no other real symptoms.
He had a 48 hour heart monitor on which they said was ok and let him come home after six days.

Do you think this could be an epileptic episode? He did a very similar thing about a year ago - got up early in the morning with a bad cramp in his left leg, went to the bathroom and passed out - but no shaking this time. He went back to bed and slept for about another 7-8 hours - then felt fine after a day or two. We put that down to dehydration or a virus. We didn't go to the doctors that time stupidly.

I would be grateful or your thoughts.

Apologies everyone for the "essay" - just writing it all down has been therapeutic!

Best Wishes to all...
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billycat
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angiebaby
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #1 - Jun 23rd, 2007, 3:39pm
 
I am sorry to hear about you husband being ill.  And i would like to congratulate you on coping with the situation so well.  It is very disturbing to witness a 'fit' of any kind and i'm sure it must be even worse when it is your spouse.  So just wanted to send you both my best wishes and send him a speedy recovery.  If anything out of the ordinary happens i too get the 'oh i cannot cope with this' feeling and it is very, very strong and i applaude you for getting past that and getting on with the task as hand, as it were.  I also get more ectopics as it is like a shock to my system.  I hope everything is better now and well done again.
Angiebaby.x
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Angiebaby.x
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #2 - Jun 24th, 2007, 2:36am
 
Sorry to hear about your husband's illness. When a crisis really happens it is amazing how you can focus and deal with it. Things like this do put our own worries into perspective. My young son has asthma and occasionally has had to go to A and E and we've had a few trips with bumped heads etc.. Fear about your family focusses the mind wonderfully - I didn't have time for anxiety about my own health. I'm glad that something positive is coming out of his illness.

I hope your husband feels better soon and that they get to the bottom of his problem. Best wishes.
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #3 - Jun 24th, 2007, 1:25pm
 
Hi Angiebaby and Saab,

Thank you so much to you both for your kind words - it really means a lot.

I don't yet have children - the worry you feel over them must be about a million times worse than anything I've ever felt!! Almost puts me off (but not quite!!).

My husband has an appointment with a nuerologist on Tuesday of this week, so we may find out more about what happened to him then...  I'll be interested to know what RLR thinks too.

Thanks again,
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #4 - Jun 25th, 2007, 2:01am
 
Dear Billycat
Sorry to hear about events. I truly hope your husband is okay and that it is something they can help him out with. In some kind of weird way it could be the thing that stops your health anxiety and gets you back to normal happy life with your husband.
You have obviously found a deep inner strength that you must realise now is and has always been with you. Seeing a seizure is very frightening (I have seen both my kids have them - and I think that is partly my reason for being how I am) and you sound like you have reacted in such a caring and rational way. I hope you are able to draw on this in future when you feel overwhelmed.
All the best for your appointments tomorrow
beadbabe
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #5 - Jun 25th, 2007, 7:12am
 
Thankyou Beadbabe!  Smiley

Apparently my husband also had convusions as a child when he had a high temperature - that must be so incredibly scary to see your children fitting.

I hope my anxiety continues to go in the right direction - ie - away!! I have had a few wobbles over the last few days, but as I said in the first post, I feel like quite a lot of the fear has gone.

Thanks again for your kindness,
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #6 - Jun 26th, 2007, 10:19am
 
hmmmm . . . . . .well, my first impression would be that we're looking at epileptiform type activity. Many patients who experience this type of seizure feel dazed and washed out for hours to days beyond the events themselves, without good recall of the preceding events immediately prior to or during the seizure onset and resolution. If not already performed, my suggestion here is to see a neurologist to obtain a sleep-deprived EEG. If this turns out to be normal, then I would not be too much further concerned about it being something neurological. Late onset epliepsy is of concern for a number of reasons and if present, then we look to rule out a number of possible underlying causes. Leg cramps aside from other causes in younger persons typically indicate an electrolyte imbalance and if his job or other activities produce exertion that is accompanied by excessive sweating, then it should be looked at further.  

If the leg pain precedes the fainting by a number of days or so, or other symptoms in the left leg pre-exist, then I would consider a vascular CT of the left leg to make certain that he's not forming a thrombus for any reason that could be traveling upward and resulting in momentary disturbance sufficient to cause a fainting episode. It's unlikely, but multiple episodes would warrant looking this far to rule out the possibility.  

Since you already have a referral to neurology, they will look closely at the possible presence of epilepsy or other underlying cause for the seizures. Please let me know the results if you wish further comment.

Best regards and Good Health
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #7 - Jun 26th, 2007, 12:43pm
 
Hi RLR,

Thank you so much for your reply. Well, we went to see a neurologist today who told us not to worry at all, and that in his opinion my husband had in fact had a bad case of "fainting"!! He was not worried enough to do any further tests at this stage and has effectively discharged my husband - unless the faints start happening during the day - in which case we need to go back.

He explained that what had probably happened was that 1) severe pain in the leg woke my husband from his sleep - at which point his blood pressure would be lower anyway; 2) severe pain lowers blood pressure further; 3) husband jumped out of bed, went into bathroom - fainted and came round; 4) husband then did "...the worst thing he could have done..." which was then to try and get back up and urinate - as this apparently lowers blood pressure even lower in men, and he faints again, but this time with shakes and gurgling (we were assured that this is 'normal' behaviour when blood pressure is very low??) ; 5) I tried to bring him round when probably I should have left him to come round in his own time; 6) he got up again and lay down still with very low blood pressure which caused another shake.

I asked if it is "normal" with a faint that the person should be so exhausted for hours afterwards - and he said that this can happen in some people as its the body's way of recovering and sorting itself out again. He said that some people are prone to fainting more than others, and that my husband obviously had a bad case!

So, no EEG or MRI scan. I think that we ARE really relieved - but also just a tiny bit scared that actually it was indeed a epileptic episode which may have been undiagnosed. The neurologist was quite happy that it wasn't - so I guess we have to put our faith in his judgement. He did say that my husband may faint in this way again - but if he did, then I suppose we would know more about how to deal with it.

Do you agree with the above RLR?? We seem to have been advised by a lot of the medical profession not to mention the word "fit" or "seizure" as if its a dirty word because of the implications this has on driving and work etc - but to be honest - I would rather know and deal with it if it was this.

The other thing is that no-one seemed to be particularly interested in the pain in his leg, so I think that once we've recovered from the last couple of weeks, we'll get that looked at seperately.

Should we just put this down to a bad case of fainting?? In your experience, have you seen cases of fainting such as this?

Thanks again for your thougts and best wishes to you,

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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #8 - Jun 26th, 2007, 3:27pm
 
Hi
just wanted to say quite a few years ago  our neighbour John woke during the night to  pay a call to the toilet  and unbeknown to him blood pressure drops when you go to the loo - he came out of the loo and on making his way back to the bedroom and fainted and  fell down some steps - an ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital and we were all very concerned because we heard and saw the ambulance - he was checked over and told just as your husband was told it was a 'bad' case of fainting  because blood pressure drops when your asleep anyway and then going to the loo drops then as well. As I say this was several years ago and he is absolutely fine  - hope this reassures you.

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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #9 - Jun 27th, 2007, 10:17am
 
Okay, I'm not capable of formally evaluating your husband to determine what I believe to be taking place with the episodes described and although it's a departure from what is intended to be discussed on this forum, here's my take on the matter;

First of all, isolated seizure activity can not carry the diagnosis of epilepsy, which more accurately must represent particularly kinds of seizures that vary in frequency and are confirmed by EEG and other diagnostic tests. Indeed, as much informal work as possible should be performed prior to making medical record entries that suggest the presence of a seizure disorder. The fact that the events you describe in your husband being isolated in time by as much as one year would not suggest epilepsy, but it does not rule it out either.

Having said that, I will now respond to the remainder of your posting.

Never once in more than 40 years of practice have I observed "shakes and gurgles" to be a normal consequence of hypotension and in fact, I've never once observed it to be the case. Also, urinating does not dramatically lower blood pressure to the threshold of conciousness, otherwise men everywhere would be walking around in bandages from crashing into the bathroom appliances and striking the floor. Yes, pain can cause fainting via an orthostatic episode, even more likely when jumping up from the bed at night, but to feel washed out for several days afterwards is without doubt uncommon in the presence of such occurrances.

My first thought if I were to see him in the emergency department would not be anything to do with his heart. The history of these incidents has to do with the onset of a left leg cramp that causes him to awaken in pain and only subsequently does he experience a syncopal episode or fainting. I would be more concerned about his electrolyte status and looking at potassium and calcium in particular. If he has altered his diet around the time of these incidents, then this would be highly suspect as the cause.

Electrolyte processing is altered during sleep and many people, mostly elderly, experience night leg cramps. The exact cause of night leg cramps is unknown. If your husband has any type of mild tremor in his hands, legs, neck, jaw, etc., then this might need to be evaluated further if it becomes more noticable. Also, if your husband has begun to notice any other unusual symptoms, regardless of how insignificant, that have been noticable either infrequently or otherwise, then they need to be brought to light to determine any possible significance.

If he has another occurrence, then my suggestion here is to have him evaluated, regardless of what anyone thinks pertinent regarding the entry into his medical records, and do the following:

Chem 21 lab panel (general health panel)
A sleep-deprived EEG
MRI with contrast


This would effectively confirm or rule out the presence of conditions that may be responsible for his symptoms. He'll be just fine and take a step-wise approach to the matter. I wouldn't give it much more attention until either another episode occurs or if there are other symptoms that he has failed to discuss because he doesn't think them to be relevant.

Best regards and Good Health
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Best Regards and Good Health
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billycat
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Re: Husband Ill - reality check for me!
Reply #10 - Jun 27th, 2007, 1:00pm
 
Thanks RLR for your post.

Its so difficult to know what to do for the best when given different opions.

We were definately told by both the neurologist and our GP that blood pressure drops in men when urinating!! Perhaps it only happens in British men!?!

I agree that it sounds fairly unlikely that an otherwise fit and healthy man of 35 would take hours to feel fully recovered from a "faint".

I guess we'll watch what happens from here on in, and like you suggest - take other occurences or feelings that he has seriously.

Lets hope it won't ever happen again!

Thanks again,
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billycat
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