Saturday, May 03, 2008

Another seizure? No thanks, I've already had one...

For the first time I had a seizure on London Transport. It was on the Central Line, just as it was arriving at Mile End station. I could feel it coming on and just before we arrived there I took one of my Clobozam but it was too late. I spoke to the guy next to me and said "I'm going to have a seizure and he replied "I don't speak English". Then I spoke to the woman on the other side and told her the same thing. Then, being a nice commuter, and knowing how much it annoys me which someone is taken ill on a train and the rest of us are stuck in tunnels for ages, I dutifully forced my way through the crush and onto the platform. I heard someone say "Shall I pull the emergency lever" and I managed to say "No". then I got onto the platform and so did some nice woman who helped me over to the steps where I sat down. She kept telling me to breathe deeply and kept asking me my name. After that, my mind is blank until I find myself in hospital (Royal Hospital, Whitechapel), being helped onto a hospital bed. I'm aching all over.

After that, they go through the normal motions, checking my details, checking that I know them, then doing the usual neurological tests (eyes following a pencil, testing reflexes, and so on. Then I'm moved to a main ward where I have to have a cannula inserted (one of those things they stick in the back of your or in your forearm, which has a plastic exterior). It's to allow them to inject fluids without constantly sticking needles into you. It's bloody painful, I can tell you.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'm kept in there until about 11:30pm, and then released.

I'm worried that my seizures are getting closer together, as is my neurologist. Funnily enough, he practices at this hospital as well as the hospital I see him at! What's more, the hospital registrar I spoke had trained under my neurosurgeon! Small world, eh?

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