Another Two Seizures Today

**warning long post **

Well this was a shock although I suppose given the circumstances it shouldn't have been.

This morning we were having a slow start to the Labor day weekend which was nice.  Karl was in bed and the children were sitting on the floor playing.  I decided that the day had to begin and was in the bathroom cleaning my teeth and then I felt the seizure start to come on. I could not talk and my face, cheeks and jaw started to spasm.  I tried to get Karl's attention but he was lost in space staring the other way. I started banging on the bathroom counter with no success, in desperation I grabbed one of the heavy candles on the counter and threw it hard in his direction.  His face was a picture:)

Then he realized what was happening and ran over. I got into the recovery position and tried to remain calm and breathe. My mouth was open and I was drooling (TMI) with my jaw and face uncontrollably spasming. Knowing the cause helped my fear level considerably and I was able to focus on breathing and relaxing. The image that I visualized was the back screen with the word "relax" in white that was displayed during my fMRI between trials.  Odd, but it seemed to work.  After a few minutes I came out of it, and my face stopped spasming.

The whole time I was aware of what was going on.  Astrid was stroking my hair and saying "its OK Mummy", Karl was holding my hand and telling me the same thing. The cat came and sat about 2 inches away from my face staring at me purring.  I think that he thought I must have caught a mouse or something.

When we had all calmed down, I spoke to the children about the tumor in my brain that the doctors are looking at and told them that this is called a seizure and will probably happen again. They were momentarily concerned but soon lost interest.

Later on Alexander said that he thought I was choking on my toothbrush as my cheeks were all puffed up.  He said it sometimes happens to him when he puts his toothbrush in his mouth sideways and cannot get it out.  That was not something that I wanted to hear at that point. Eight year old boys are so weird.

All went on as normal although of course Karl and I were very shaken up.   I called my neurologist and as it was a Saturday got through to an answering service.  He got back to me very quickly and told me to double my daily dose of Lamicatal XR.  I was taking 100mg per day and now I have to take 200mg.

My good friend Marci came over and although we talked about it intially, most of the afternoon was filled with laughter.

Later on that afternoon I was cleaning my teeth and it happened again.  Luckily I had my cell phone with me and managed to Karl call who was in another part of the house. I then got myself into the recovery position and waited for him to answer the phone. Of course I cannot speak so put the phone to my mouth hoping he would hear the gurgling, then I banged the phone on the wall. He came running and we went through the same thing again, without the cat this time. This one was not as long and I was out of it much sooner.

These are the first that I have not woken up from a dead sleep seizing so I was completely aware of the onset. Also these are the first since I am of course worried that this might mean some sort of progression or change in the tumor and also what it means for my general day to day life.

Am I never supposed to clean my teeth again???