We saw mine- yay...sorta. Actually it was a medium-sized spike that I
wouldn't have noticed (lots of spikes are all over the place normally). But
they noticed it right away as being on the wrong track at the wrong time and
they pointed it out on that display they have with a video pointed at the
bed superimposed with horizontal wiggly lines. Then they pointed to it
spreading up some electrodes along the center of the head toward the eyes. I
could see it but it still looked like an ordinary spike to me. But I was
clearly seizing behind the track displays.
A fugue started after the tracks quieted down (the nurses were apparently
out to lunch during the seizure but they noticed me getting up out of bed
and ran in there to keep me from walking off). When you're walking around in
a fugue like that, the seizure is actually over. You're actually "awake"
again. But the storm of inhibitory chemicals that your brain flooded parts
of itself with to extinguish the seizure means chunks of your head are a bit
anesthesized even as other parts are still chugging away normally. People do
strange things when only parts of their brain are fully operational and this
alarms observers. To others it looks like you're "walking during the
seizure" like sleepwalking, but this has nothing to do with sleep.
If there is a little piece of seizing brain left smoldering somewhere, an
Act II is often likely after the intermission and people will think the
fugue was part of a long seizure- instead of two seizures separated by a
fugue. Recovery from this state is a smooth transition to ordinary
consciousness as discrete abilities reappear. It's never really clear when a
fugue is over. You can say your name, you remember things, you can obey
instructions, you know where you are (as in, not outside), your short term
memory starts working again, drip drip drip, not in that order. Once long
term memory starts getting recorded, you'll remember that as "when the
seizure was over" with it again and you'll probably think you're back to
normal, just feeling a little whacked. You're not- you're still recovering
and the answers you give to certain questions are still going to be pretty
funny. Q: "Do you know where you are?" A: "Of course, what do you think I'm
stupid?" Q: "Then where are you?" A: "I'm, uhhh [looks around puzzled]" This
crap gets better pretty fast but is still noticeable (only by yourself) for
days afterward. Like I said it's a smooth continuous transition to normal
and it isn't clear when it's really over or what that even means.
If someone is deeply in a fugue, shouting simple monosyllabic commands at
them often works. Apparently shouted one-word commands like YES NO HERE STOP
etc. can be interpreted by a bunch of different cortical structures having
nothing to do with language but that can still interpret grunts and things
like that. One of those might be working enough to guide the person back
onto a mattress.
-Jason
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