seizure on the loo

[Lynette]

Hi there - I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. My Mother has Vascular Dementia - later stages and now immobile due to a bad fall five months ago. Twice now - four months apart she has 'taken a turn' while sitting on the toilet. Apparently she blacks out and goes stiff or appears to seizure. Both times, once with my sister and once with a carer they throught shed died!
She comes round and afterwards is exactly as she was before with no visible damage. She is prone to constipation due to her condition but the nurse is saying she was passing a normal bowel motion at the time (a three days ago). Obviously something serious is happening. The Doctor has asked for blood tests - but if anyone has seen this happen or has any advice I'd love to hear it.
Can I just add that dispite this event and the sadness that often threatens to overwhelm me at losing my mum to this horrible condition - I had the best day I've had with her for a long time today - she talked, responded to questions and even smiled and hummed a tune for the first time in a long time. I feel blessed to have been with her today to witness such a rare event. Sometimes there is a ray of sunshine in all this.
Best Lyn

 

[germain]

Will try to be delicate - but !!!

Hi Lynette


Something like this happened to our Mum occasionally - she fell OFF the loo a couple of times and yes she also suffered from intermittent constipation (that was when she didn't have C.Diff from the hospital)


We were told that one possibility could be that she was used to straining - this possibly raised her BP suddenly and it was either a faint or another TIA. She also had postural hypo tension for a while which meant she became dizzy when standing - so the other possibility was that the sheer effort of getting to the loo was a problem. A third explanation was linked to the straining - she also had atrial fibrillation and holding her breath and pushing may have afected this condition !



Can't believe going to the loo could cause so many probs. !


Regards
Germain

ps our Mum could "play dead for Britain" when she was feeling poorly - went through a whole stroke assessment by emergency GP once and only "woke" around an hour later to say about the paramedic - "oh he's handsome" Not implying your Mum is putting it on at all but think sometimes the total absence of response could be the dementia brains way of coping with a sudden physical crisis.

 

[Lynette]

Thanks Germain

Thanks Germain
I agree is has to be some sort of BP situation to cause a black out. Strangely she doesn't appear to strain whilst doing a motion - its seems she's forgotten how. Maybe its a massive faint. My mum has days where she sort of plays possum - you can give her her lunch and a cup of tea with a straw and her eye's will stay shut the entire time.
Best Lyn

 

[citybythesea]

Thinking back......

I never put this with the Alzheimers. Several years back, before mom came to live with me, she had 2 episodes.

The first episode my daughter found her on the floor. She could not get up so Elise got me. I helped her get up and since she had soiled herself we went to the bathroom to clean up. On the toilet she had a blank stare for several minutes. Elise called for emergency help. I held mom up. NO amount of waving my hand in front of her face could "waken" her. She was taken to the hospital, tests done sent home the next morning. They couldn't find anything wrong.

The second time she was in a bath. (She would not bathe unless someone was there) She did the same thing getting out. I caught her that time. Back to the hospital. This time the dr. was able to "catch" a glimpse of what he thought might be happeneing. They took her bllod pressure while she was lying down then had her sit up and almost immediately her blood pressure plummetted. He felt both times were from her blood pressure doing a quick fall...which caused her to go into a moment ofnonawareness.

 

[germain]

Hi again Lynette,

The "playing possum" rings a huge bell. Our consultant sort of gave us a reason - she said it was possible that it was Mum's reaction to being unable to cope - could be with her condition, things going on around her or simply unable to express she was in pain.

We went for days with Mum totally refusing to open her eyes at all - for anything - even tho' we knew she was concious.


She suggested trying low dose painkillers (paracetomol in our case) on a regular basis as Mum had arthritis also. These seemed to help and she became more alert for a while.


Glad you had a good day.


Regards
Germain

 

[Margarita]

My Mother has Vascular Dementia - later stages and now immobile due to a bad fall five months ago. Twice now - four months apart she has 'taken a turn' while sitting on the toilet. Apparently she blacks out and goes stiff or appears to seizure.

when you say appears to seizure , does her whole body shake ? as

as my daughter has seizures that why I ask does your mother shake when she has one .

My mother has had 2 falls in the toilet , but I have never found her black out . she is always more confused does not know how to get up .

when that happen its normal to do with her surge levels , as one time sitting having a meal out with me , she did black out on to my lap started to shake ,that it look like she was having a seizure but that was because her surge levels where very low as she dietetic , when she was given spoon fall of surge she can around like nothing had happen . Just like when my daughter has a seizure , but does not need surge to bring her around .

Just wondering if your mother is dietetic ?


Could they not do a brain scan to find out what going on , if she does not have dietetic

When my mother had a fall , fell backward on to the back of her head , they done a brain scan to make sure she did not have a blood clot in her brain .