Moose here, Not SEN children but could someone please advise me - epilepsy

[moosemama]

Well my weekend away was disastrous in many ways, but the most significant one was spending the whole of today in the Acute Medical Ward of the hospital after having what is believed to be two fits last night. (Meanwhile my poor old Mum was coping dd recovering from a vomiting bug and ds2 coming down with dd's bug really badly and even throwing up in his sleep over and over - so she had to sit up all night with the poor mite. )

As for the weekend away, I didn't even make it to the meal. 6.30 pm, ordered my meal, felt a bit odd, realised it was neurological and dh took me back to our room - which was in the building next door. Went to bed and after a while felt well enough to think I was just going to sleep and would probably feel better later and perhaps join the guys for a drink before the end of the night. So sent dh back to join our friends.

Woke up an hour later felt odd and disorientated. Went to the bathroom, sat on the loo, felt odd and then woke up under the toilet, head and feet the wrong way to have just fallen off/fainted. When I came round I was aware of a sort of growling noise, and then a pain in my head. I realised when I came out of it that the pain was my head repeatedly bashing the underside of the wall hung toilet bowl.

Lay there for a few minutes until I felt I could move, got up wobbly and sat on the loo, then wham - woke up under the sink on the other side of the room - it was a really big bathroom, so again too far away to have just fallen.

There was no warning, although I did feel really strange. No dizziness and I didn't feel link I was fainting - which has happened to me a lot over the years and I would recognise that "uh-oh, here I go, slidey feeling". It was literally just, one minute I was sitting on the loo, the next I was under it with a head covered in lumps - the worst one being my left eye socket. Fortunately it didn't develop into a full on black-eye, just a shadowy bruise that can be mistaken for a shadow - can't imagine having to walk into school tomorrow with a black-eye.

I also ache all over today and seem to have wrenched my shoulder - although I can't imagine how.

So there I was, locked into our suite on my own feeling very scared and shaky, with dh at a gig in a separate building. Managed to crawl back to the bedroom and grab my phone and by a miracle got pretty much the only decent mobile signal I had all day to send a text that read He L p.

Dh is now back in my good books after coming thundering through the pouring shropshire rain and up three flights of stairs to rescue me. He had been drinking so couldn't drive (not that we knew where the hospital was) and all I wanted to do was sleep and wouldn't let him call an ambulance, so he insisted on checking my pupil reflexes for concussion, before sitting with me until I fell asleep.

Sooo, my question is can you be aware you are having or rather coming out of a fit, or would you be completely oblivious to it? I have always thought you have absolutely no idea what's going on and because I was on my own, no-one else saw what happened.

The doctor I eventually saw at the hospital felt it was suspicious enough for them to want to keep me in and run some tests tomorrow, but I refused as ds1 was already in a state, having expected us back at 4 pm and Mum wanted him to sleep over there, which would have screwed the whole week up for him due to the routine change.

Most of the standard neuro proddy pokey tests they did today were normal, but I had a positive Babinski's reflex in my left foot (the one with Complex Regional Pain) and I have felt like I have a really bad hangover all day - which is rather unfair considering I didn't get a chance to drink. In the end they agreed to discharge with an urgent referral for outpatient EEG and yet another MRI, plus a letter informing my neurologist.

I really want to believe I just fainted, but know it didn't feel like that and I to be honest I get upset and frightened just thinking about how it felt at the time. My friends want to rebook in January for a 40th birthday, but I can't bear the thought of going back there.

I can't just catch a break, can I ?!

DS1 hasn't been offered the GS. He has been offered the local Academy not great at extending the top set, it's where their value added loses points.

He DOES seem to be close to the lowest 'accepted' score, so may well be high on the waiting list though. To get a place off the waiting list, he would realistically have to be in the top 12 on the waiting list.

I won't know until Friday 8th March, a whole WEEK away what number he is on the waiting list!

And it means that he might not be offered a place until the last week of AUGUST.

We ARE appealing, we have two very good reasons why he under performed on the day, his illness (strep throat AND the start of appendicitis - 11+ on the Wed, appendecitis dxd Friday night, appendectomy Saturday morning - he was even complaining his tummy hurt & I put it down to nerves ), AND personal issues because it was only a few weeks after his SM hurt him and he stopped seeing his dad.

But now I have to compile an appeal for a GS that has only EVER had 3 successful appeals (ever!). On top of everything else in my busy life.

DEEP JOY. (Said with MUCH sarcasm).

Thing is, it really IS the best Secondary for DS1. Fuck.

Oh Lord Couthy.

Hope they see sense and find in your favour at the appeal. How horrible of them to leave it until the end of August though. How on earth are you supposed to organise buying uniform etc, when you have to do it all at the last minute like that.

I have ds1 home today. The child is positively green and way beyond exhausted. He's eating well but not maintaining or gaining weight, sleeping like the dead and this morning just couldn't get up.

I booked him a follow up GP appointment for this morning to avoid him having to go to a production at the local Academy. Good job I did, because he is not right at all. The intention was to drop him back to school after lunch, but he wasn't anywhere near well enough to go. So, I have him here, curled up on the sofa reading the Pokemon comic I bought him as a treat while I waited for his Emla prescription to be filled.

Ordinarily he is an insomniac bundle of energy, who literally never stops moving - or talking. This is just so unlike him and it's been going on since the start of January.

First lot of bloods came back clear - took him back to the GP that ordered them today and he noticed the lab failed to do FBCs, so we are back for more blood letting on Monday morning. Unfortunately, they now refuse to do paed blood tests at our local hospital, so we have to trek all the way to Heartlands in the city. GP said he can't move on diagnostically until he's eliminated the possibility of anaemia, especially given that ds is a vegetarian and has digestive problems that probably affect absorption.

We have noticed he has been weeing a lot over the past couple of weeks - like for example, when I was in bed last weekend, three times in half an hour and actually properly weeing each time (my bed is above the toilet room).

Gp has taken a sample, said he'll dip it this morning and let us know if there's any sign of infection, but will send it to the lab as well just in case.

Poor child was absolutely desperate to go to the toilet when we got called in to the doc's room. The, thing is, he overflowed the pot and then some when he went to do the sample, yet had only been to the toilet half an hour before.

I am starting to fret about the possibility of diabetes, as that's what the symptoms scream to me. Trying not to google and worry myself even more.

We've been through periods of him obsessive toilet visiting in the past, but then he didn't always 'go' when he got there, iyswim. This time he is actually producing a lot every time, which can't be right.

All the inevitable hand-washing has given him him horrible eczema on the back of his hands and between his fingers as well. That's another thing actually, he has developed eczema in the last few months as well, when he has never had it in his life before.

Oh - and I had some very odd stuff going on myself during the night last night. Similar feeling like when my muscles cramped up, but this time they just felt like they were cramping, but when dh asked me to grip his hand we realised they weren't tight, if anything they were weak. Hands and feet felt really painful, a bit like pins and needles but burning hot and gradually creeping up my forearms and calves - horrible. Odd thing is it was bilateral, although worst on my left side. Most of my neuro stuff tends to be confined to my left side.

I was also struggling to speak, slurring and felt the sort of expectant fear feeling. I was pretty scared, felt like it was building up towards something but it never did. Dh stroked my back and I fell asleep for a while - woke up with a start and it was happening again, but not as bad and passed quicker.

Woke this morning feeling dreadful, beyond exhausted, wobbly legs cognitively crap etc and with my left hand and forearm really painful still with red hot pins and needles and aching. It has gradually improved throughout the day, but is still not right and bizarrely, mid morning a really odd cerise and purple fingerprint sized bruise appeared on my forearm, pretty much in front of mine and my Mum's eyes. I haven't knocked or bumped it - it wasn't there first thing, because I was rubbing that part of my arm due to the hot/tingling thing. Very odd.

Okay, so GP didn't call meaning no infection evident from dipstick, but ds has just flooded the toilet room and saturated his pjs less than an hour after his last visit.

Have been strong and not googled, but am sooooo tempted.

Leonie, comes to something when myclonic jerks, snafu technology and heartburn is a good day!

I've been feeling a little better this afternoon, ridiculously tired, but relatively odd sensation free.

The weeing does sound a bit like diabetes. Is he very thirsty? You could really do without this. Although my boys do seem to wee a lot when they have a temperature.

That's the odd thing Ellen, no major thirst, so maybe not diabetes.

He's never been a big drinker, just doesn't seem to recognise when he's thirsty. In fact we have to force him to drink, by making drinking a cup of water regularly part of his daily schedule, so Lord knows where it's all coming from - I'm surprised he's not dessicated - let alone dehydrated.

No temperature either - just big black rings around his eyes, a distinctly green general appearance and horrible exhaustion.

No glucose meter Leonie and the only person we know who has one lives an hour's drive away and has just lost their Dad.

Thank you. He was our best friend's dad and we were really fond of him, although haven't seen him for years. He was in his 90s and still determinedly independent.

I really want to go to the funeral, but it's in Herts and I'm not sure I'm up to the journey at the moment. Dh is definitely going, as are our other closest friends and I feel like I'll be letting the side down if I don't go, but just one afternoon at ds1's new school knocked me for six these days, so a whole day of travelling, plus emotional funeral can only be worse. It's Tuesday and I have to make my mind up by Sunday evening, because we are probably car sharing thanks to our suspension collapsing yesterday. (The car's suspension that is - not mine, although nothing would surprise me these days!)

mine managed to survive ds1 and ds2 relatively unscathed, but I fear dd's supersonic delivery has done for it. Haven't even bothered mentioning it to the docs - already have far too many medical appointments to attend between us as it is.

Sorry to hear about your parents' neighbour. I remember when the neighbour here passed. She was living here before we moved in (when I was 6 months old) and despite moving out when I was 7 and being totally terrified of her, it felt so strange when I used to come and visit my Dad and she wasn't there to bang on the window and tell me not to step on her side of the path (impossible to get through the gate without stepping on it ). She threw a brick at - and poisoned my cat - but I still missed her in a really bizarre, crazy kind of way.

It's a burial next week as well and I really struggle with those. My Dad had three services and then a burial (funeral in the UK, then repatriated by air to Ireland) and the burial was the worst part of it all. It still makes me shudder every single time we drive past the church while we are there every summer and I can't bring myself to visit the grave. Had a proper telling off from my big sis when she went over for the first time since the funeral this year (6 years) and the grave wasn't tidy, but I just can't seem to face it.

Nope - you're just human, with limits that are already way overstretched. x

Hi all

Ds says he keeps going dizzy today and is now panicking that he has a brain tumour. He is really borderline ocd re health and hygiene stuff, so we've had a battle on our hands to make sure he keeps things in proportion today.

My odd bruise turned out to be a blooming spider bite! I searched google images and sure enough, when I looked closely, it has two little fang holes in the centre!

Oh sorry! It was today wasn't it. My blooming memory is useless at the moment or I'd have come on and wished you luck.

The open machine was worse because it didn't have a mirror, so you couldn't see anything but the roof of the machine literally a couple of cm from your nose! 20 minutes? Mine took 40 - I think I need to change PCT!

Bummer about there not being anyone around to analyse the scan. Hope the consultant gets someone to look them over before your appointment on Monday.

Good to hear they took a copy of your old scan to compare, I was told the NHS had burned mine because it was more than 5 years old, then mysteriously told they had it a couple of appointments later.

So relieved for you that they are finally listening and taking you seriously.

They've never given me contrast, which I find really odd, seeing as they keep saying that they can't get a clear enough view of the damage to be sure what they're looking at.

Lol at the cheeky technician! I bought a new sports bra especially for my scan - can't stand going bra-less.

Sorry you had an episode afterwards. They do say MRIs don't cause side effects, but I lost balance for a few hours after my first one (actually fell over in the hospital corridor) and was subsequently told by my neuro that it's quite common. After all, we know we have magnetic fields etc involved with our physical make-up so it's bound to have some effect.

Yeah - I should have mentioned that they don't like metal underwires!

Ah - I am a control freak wanted to get through it as fast as possible, so made sure mine was just a nice snug fitting sports tank - with no shoulder adjustment. I already have 3 sports bras from my shredding days, but all three have metal adusters and two have hook and eye fastening, so had to buy yet another.