"Life is too short to be average all the time; it's boring." - Wim Hof
On July 1st, 2013, I had a seizure at work. I know, people have them all the time, but it was a first for me. Normally, people who have experiences outside the norm gain an appreciation for, or crusade in the name of awareness, of said medical condition. However, my experience went as follows: sat down at my desk. Woke up on floor. Taken to hospital. Sent home. More in depth, they did a CBC with Auto Diff, Basic Metabolic Panel, Differential, Quantitative D-Dimer, Hemoglobin A1C, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, Lipid Panel, T4 Free, TSH, T3, Vitamin D 25 Hydroxy, EEG Regular Radiant, Echo-cardiogram, Comprehensive Sleep Study with 4 or more Parameters and an MRI on the brain with and without Contrast. Copy and Paste united!
What really pisses me off about the whole thing is the waiting game. I may have had a seizure, and while they're almost certain I did, almost certain I won't have one again, I have to wait around like I certainly did. That means I can't drive, hold sharp objects, or take a long walk through the woods since no one will find me in the event I have another one. In short, I can't do all the things anti-social people do; I hate it. For the record, they're not 100% sure it was a seizure because no one witnessed it (and it could have been a heart attack or stroke), but I was found unconscious, had a bite to the side of my tongue (99% caused by seizures), and had a dislocated shoulder they failed to detect in the hospital that I had to reset myself at 2 in the morning; I sent the hospital a bill for my services.
Still, to be on the safe side and prevent anyone else from having the same issues, I would like to briefly detail the warning signs I had. While it's no secret and nothing new, I was awake for 30 hours, followed by a few nights of 3-4 hours of sleep when I awoke around midnight with a weird spell of déjà vu. I have that all the time. Culturally, it is a past life memory, or a premonition warning me of coming events. Psychologically, my brain is having a random access memory error and making memories up. But this was more than just a "been here before" feeling because I felt like I was getting sick to my stomach and then I had an overwhelming sense of dread. Being fearless, this was the most alarming and strange. Apparently, those are signs of partial seizures. Had I known, well, I still would have had a seizure, so I guess they wouldn't have helped much.