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My daughter had a seizure tonight and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The doctor at the emergency said that since all of her tests were normal, more than likely the seizure was alcohol related. Have any of you experienced anything like this with your A?
What I experienced with my then 20 year old alcoholic/drug addicted daughter was a little different but also an eye opener. She had to have emergency surgery for intense lower abdonmen pain that was like appendicitis. Her white count was elevated so high that they did the surgery asap. Her appendics was fine and all her other internal organs looked normal. She needed morphine to make the intense pain tollerable. They did end up taking her appendics out. The surgeon told me that a week long binge or 3 day hard binge (for example) could have caused the exact same symptoms! I was shocked that alcohol could to this. She clamined she had not binged and I guess we believed her. WE still are not sure why this happened and she hasnt' had the same symptoms since. I guess knowing that a binge can cause such elevated white counts and severe pain a person makes me see how alcohol can also cause siezures. Just sharing my experience. Good luck and keep us posted on how she does or if she has any other seizures. cdb (((MFran)))
My A went through a tough withdrawal a few years ago and suffered a couple of seizures as well as hallucinations ( for some unknown reason he thought he had to catch an imaginery train that had stopped at our back fence, he was out in the yard trying to climb the fence to get on the "train") A very scary night!
You were lucky to be able to get your A to hospital. I called an ambulance and they would not come as it was alcohol induced, their suggestion was for me to bring him in myself. This was impossible as I had two small children, and he would have been uncontrollable and dangerous to have in the car.
From what I have learnt since, seizures are not so unusual during alcohol withdrawal. Although thank godness my A has not had them again.
I'm sure it won't be long before someone with more knowledge comes along, I'll be interested to find out more too.
My A has had 5 seizures, the first was very frightening, I really thought it was heart attack. Theses only happen when he stops drinking. The ambulance men were very understanding and told me if it happened again to treat it as you would an epileptic fit. I still panicked on the second and called them again, they took him to hospital where they treated him with very little sympathy and sent him home after a couple of hours. He went on to have 3 more before our own doctor explained that the body is craving alcohol and when it recieves none it responds in this way and can be dangerous. If and when he does stop drinking he is now prescribed librium which takes the risk away although these have to be carefully monitored.
By the way he is sober 2 weeks today going to AA and appears to be very positive (for now).
I have just gone back to him after a really bad binge session, think he knows next time I am off for good.. I have been to 3 al-anon meetings, Iread this site and its fantastic. Still need to get my head round loads but getting there..
I haven't dealt with any seizures with my husband, but like cdb said, i have seen him suffer from severe abdominal pain. Not knowing he drank, I told him to have it checked out, because it could be a symptom of a heart attack. He finally went, they did all kinds of ekg, etc, tests, and determined it MUST be a pulled muscle, as he does very strenuous lifting for his job. Now looking back, I realize that this was an effect of the alcohol. Boy did he have the doc and me fooled! But as the saying goes...hindsight is 20/20!
This I have had some experience with. My A/son had many, many seizures, always when he was withdrawing from his drug of choice. Or at the very least, I know that drugs were involved somehow.
They were scary at first and we called the ambulance until the ambulance refused to deal with him anymore. He would get so violent after the seizure was done.
I honestly think that somehow sometimes he would have them because he knew that at the end he would end up in the hospital with more of his favorite drugs. Don't ask me how he did it, but I am pretty sure he did, so are the hospitals and dr's. They called them pseudo-seizures.
It was very scary, but finally I learned to walk away when he was having them. Sounds hard I know. But I had to.
A friend of mine who is an active alcoholic also had seizures when she was at work. I also think that had something to do with her drinking.
So I think the dr's that attended your daughter are probably right, from my experience anyway.
My A had a grand mal seizure (shaking on the ground and biting his tongue) on a 3 day trip by bus from Washington State to Connecticut. It happened 4 years ago Thanksgiving. It happened as he stepped off the bus at the Milwaukee bus terminal. He had been withdrawing for couple of days at that point. He spent couple of days at hospital there (he was travelling alone) and then continued on with his trip. Seizures very common when As detox especially when they are in late stages of alcoholism. Usually starts with the dt's or shakes and progresses from there. Once person has had a seizure it is more likely that they will have one again and seizures can cause permanent brain damage. That is why now when A detoxes he must be medicated (valium or similar drug) for first few days.
My A husband had a seizure in July, he had stopped drinking for about 3 days and was out side playing catch with his son in the field beside our house, his son came running in the house because just all of sudden his father had fell to the ground. I had no idea what had happened to him, I called 911. When i got to him in the field he was starting to wake up, he had foam coming out of his mouth and his breathing was very rapid and he was very disoriented. I followed the ambulance in, when the doctor asked him if he had been drinking of course he said no, and I had to speak up and say "maybe that's the problem", so once the emergency doctor realized he was an alcoholic, he suggested that this was an alcohol withdrawl seizure. He had lots of tests done to make sure this was the case. He has been on Dilantan ever since, but of course the effects of dilantan are minimzed when taken with alcohol. It is very important for someone who is an alcoholic not to come of it cold turkey without medical help, if their body is used to having alcohol everyday it kind of goes into shock when when the A stops drinking, but usually it takes a day or two before the alcohol is out of their system.
My husband was just lucky that he was in the middle of a field and not driving a car or something. I mean this doesn't happen to everyone everytime but it can happen and usually it happens on the second or third day after they stop drinking.
I had not heard of this until it had happened to him, but I guess it is common.
Stormstayed that is almost exactly what happened by my daughter. Today her therapist (a psychologist) told her to ask her doctor whether or not stopping drinking cold turkey could cause another seizure. Her doctor said no. The emergency room doctor gave her a couple of days worth of ativan and that is all the medication she was given. She started zoloft a month ago. Her doctor said he wanted her to get off of zoloft and alcohol. She really likes this doctor, but today was the first time she had seen him. I hope he knows what he is talking about. I am afraid if she doesn't quit cold turkey she won't quit. I think she will use it as an excuse to keep drinking indefinitely. She suffers from depression and I am really worried about her. Because of the seizure she can not drive until she gets a medical release from her doctor. Not being able to drive causes all kinds of problems that aggravate depression. It is a vicious circle.
But as the saying goes...hindsight is 20/20!