Seizure, Part 2

My mom had another seizure yesterday. Or at least we think it was a seizure. We’ll be more sure tomorrow, once we talk to the doctor about her EEG and MRI results. We’re really hoping it’s a seizure (what? Hoping for a seizure?) because if its not, it could be a lot of other things, all which are worse than a seizure. I can’t remember what they are exactly, but they wouldn’t be good.

She had the seizure at about 1:30pm yesterday afternoon. She was on this contraption my dad likes to call the Frankenstein machine – it makes her stand up, and they can wheel her around standing up on it, if they want. They use it to take her to the bathroom and stuff, and it somehow sits her down too, or something. I’ve never seen it, but it sounds a little weird. The nurses sometimes leave her on this contraption in the bathroom for about 10 minutes at a time.

Anyway, she was on the Frankenstein machine, in the bathroom, when the nurse found her, hanging on this contraption by her armpits. The nurse called for help, and my dad was in the room, and rushed to help. Now, if you remember, my dad can’t really walk, and he definitely shouldn’t be lifting things, so that probably didn’t work too well. They were finally able to get another nurse to help get her into a wheelchair, and then back into bed.

When she got into bed, she was non-responsive. So that was scary. Then, she started to look like she was swallowing over and over again, and my dad quickly turned her on her side, and then she vomited. (The number of times my dad’s random nurse-like knowledge that he gained from helping his mom quiz for her RN classes when he was in high school has come in handy is unbelievable.)

They cleaned her up, and took her down for an EEG (though I guess she vomited again either before or after the EEG). She was responsive again when they brought her back up to the room, but super tired.

The doctor says that the seizure was caused by the cancer. Not by the stroke, or the trauma of the bleeding, or even from having her in the Frankenstein machine. The seizure was caused by the cancer. Which means they may just keep coming. And it means that if they do keep coming, she won’t be able to stay in rehab.

We thought we had a little more time, before the cancer really took hold. I guess we don’t.