Momentary Absences: Epilepsy, Aphasia or Senior Moments?
Have you ever had one of those moments when you are not sure of where you are? They are sometimes called momentary absences. Or you know someone just asked you a question, but you didn’t understand the question or you can’t think of a reply, or you know the answer but can’t communicate it? Or you were doing something and you seemed to doze off? For those of us who are slightly age challenged, and have been diagnosed with epilepsy and aphasia, we have three conditions upon which we can blame these momentary absences. If they become more frequent, it behooves us to try to determine the source or sources of the absences.
When many hear the term epilepsy, they have a picture of violent convulsions or an attack of unconsciousness with either stiffness or floppiness. What is epilepsy? It is not a disease. According to the Encarta Dictionary, epilepsy is a medical disorder involving episodes of irregular electrical discharges in the brain and characterized by the periodic sudden loss or impairment of consciousness. These episodes are called seizures. Seizures can be large with total loss of consciousness and accompanied by convulsions, rigidity or floppiness, or small with what appears to be a momentary absence of some or several body functions. Some individuals are born with the tendency to have these irregular electrical discharges and hence, seizures. For others these irregular electrical discharges and hence, the seizures, begin after a traumatic brain event, such as a stroke, injury or operation. My seizures began after the removal of a benign brain tumor which was discovered when a blood vessel in the tumor burst, filling my cranial cavity with blood and causing all the symptoms of a stroke. My seizures most likely are a result of the scar tissue left after the removal of the tumor. I had four grand-mal or total generalized seizures within a 30 minute time-frame. I was hospitalized and stabilized. I was put on anti-seizure medication and I have not had any large-scale seizures since those first four. I can’t tell you if I have had any “mini-seizures.” My neurologist has done several EEG’s. After one of them, she said that it showed lots of spurious activities. (I jokingly remarked, “So what’s new?”). When we asked her what that meant, she said that it could be a sign of lots of mini-seizures or the prelude to another major one.
I have come up with my own way of identifying my moments of absence. If I start to do something and before I can do it or finish it, I get sidetracked, that’s a senior moment. If I can’t remember to do something that I am supposed to do, again that’s a senior moment. If I find myself struggling in a conversation to find the right word or expression, that’s the aphasia. If I can’t understand the telephone answering tree when I call a company, that’s the aphasia. If I can’t understand and follow written instructions, that’s also the aphasia. If I am sitting in the lounger in the living room watching television, reading the newspaper, doing a crossword puzzle or a Sudoku, and I seem to zone out, then that’s probably the epilepsy. Of all the momentary absence, these scare my wife the most because she says that what happened in our car just before the first grand-mal seizure. One moment she was talking with me and I was slow responding to her. I was staring straight ahead with a blank expression on my face. Then I didn’t respond at all to her question and I became stiff and lost consciousness. When I zone out now, she keeps pumping me with questions to make sure that I am in there somewhere. Most of the time, I respond by her third question. Except for the dangers of seizures, it is convenient to have three excuses for unresponsiveness and lack of completing tasks. I used to have only one excuse, which was “selective hearing.” Occasionally, I still pull that one out of my back pocket to use.
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