Question Title: afraid to sleep..pls help

Recently I've been awakening during the night feeling short of breath for just a few seconds, followed by a strange sensation in my left
upper abdomen, extreme nausea, dizziness and sweating, especially my feet feel soaking wet. The nausea is horrible but it never makes me vomit. It feels as though it is an all over kind of nausea rather than from my stomach, yet it is the most debilitating type of sickness I've ever felt. Thank goodness it only lasts about 3 minutes, but during this time I always wonder if I should or should not call 911. I've called them a couple of times and everything is normal by the time they get here. However, last night it happened again, the worst one yet. It's always in the first couple of hours during sleep. I went back to sleep and then later I awakened in my own vomit. I have no idea when I vomited.
My doctor was treating me for panic attacks. I started taking anti-depressants and the episodes got much worse. I do have abnormal EEGs, but nothing really definitive seems to come from my doctors interpretation of these. I just recently had a normal thallium stress test. I'm scared to death to go to sleep. The frequency has gone from occasionally, prior to the anti-depressants, to all the time. I quit taking the anti-depressants last Friday and I'm still having these very badly. I'm exhausted the next day after these episodes and find it hard to get out of bed, exhaustion and some mild dizziness. Please help me. My doctor is of no help whatsoever, just suggests that maybe I should try a different anti-depressant. I would like to get to the bottom of what's really going on with me. No one who knows me thinks this is a panic disorder and I even have a couple of friends with panic disorder and they think my doctor is incorrect in his diagnosis.
Any suggestions?

Dear Tiffany,

The spells that you are describing, although a bit unusual could represent a seizure. Especially if you have an abnormal EEG. I would recommend that you discuss with your neurologist about getting an evaluation in a sleep monitering unit. These spells sound as if they are happening frequently. The goal would be to catch one of the episodes while monitered with eeg, ekg, pulmonary moniters and video. I would also recommend continuing the work-up to look for other medical reasons (such as cardicac/ pulmonary etc.) Panik attacks are included in the differential as well, however, medical etiologies should be ruled out first. If you are interested in getting an evaluation at CCF call 1-800-CCF-CARE. Good Luck.

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