Before our diagnosis of sleep apnea, I would sit there at night and count how many times my husband quit breathing in one night. Sometimes it would be so bad that I would panic and wake him up. Other times I would catch him have his nocturnal seizures. When I brought it up to the epileptologist, he discussed sleep apnea.
My husband epileptologist and sleep specialist feel that his sleep apnea and lack of sleep are one of his main triggers for his E. When we went for the sleep apnea test, it showed that my husband quit breathing numerous times throughout the night. Sometimes it would last for seconds, sometimes up to a little over a minute. Any lack of oxygen to the brain is dangerous. The dr thinks that when my husband quits breathing, his brain goes into shock and it triggers a seizure. Sometimes the situation is severe and wakes my husband up. The study also showed that sometimes he just breaks his sleep cycle. He hardly makes it into REM sleep because he arouses during his cycle do to the lack of oxygen. This causes him to feel like he is not getting enough real rest and in turn triggers more seizures for him.
It might be something worth checking in to. They sent him to a sleep lab. Put a bunch of wires and what not on him and measure his breathing, brain activity, and muscle activity during his sleep. It gave us alot of details that have helped us. Its noninvasive and couldnt hurt to try.
________________________________
From: Cristin Filipuzzi <cristinfilipuzzi7@yahoo.ca>
To: epilepsy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 12:26:47 PM
Subject: Re: [epilepsy] Re: My daughter experiencing seizure like activity last night
Hi Stacey. Is the sleep apnea what actually causes your husbands seizures? I am wondering if this is possible with my daughter. On my daughter's EEG it does show an abnormality during the second stage of sleep. Do you think that there might be a connections with this?
When my daughter cannot breathe, she wakes up and remembers this. She cannot even get in one breath. Her face turns blue. She is so scared of this.
________________________________
From: Staci Waites <swaites2003@yahoo.com>
To: epilepsy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, May 31, 2010 11:10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [epilepsy] Re: My daughter experiencing seizure like activity last night
Cristin,
Is it possible that her period of not breathing while sleeping could be related to sleep apnea...and then the loss of oxygen triggers the seizure? This is what happens to my husband. His epileptologist sent him to a sleep specialist. He was dx with severe sleep apnea and the loss of oxygen effected his E. Just an idea from personal experience.
Staci
--- In epilepsy@yahoogroups.com, "cristinfilipuzzi7" <cristinfilipuzzi7@...> wrote:
>
> Hello. My daughters seizures started in January 2009. She has had 5 seizures. Before each one she cannot breath in any air. She makes this gasping choking sound that lasts for about 30 seconds to one minute and then the seizure kicks in and she does not remember anything else. This alwasys happens while she is sleeping. Last night shortly after falling asleep she all of the sudden lifted up her head and turned around. I asked her if she was ok. After asking her a few times she said yes. And then told me a few minutes later that she felt the same kind of feeling before she had the other seizures, but she controlled it. She was to scared to go back to sleep. This has happened once in the past as well. Does anyone know what might be going on? Thankyou. Cristin Filipuzzi
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
No comments:
Post a Comment