Hello,
My father-inlaw has been having these "spells" as we call it, for almost 9 years now, no doctor can figure out what is wrong with him. I know they have to be missing something but they just put it off as seizures. I am concerned and would really love to find an answer for him. His spells come and go without any certain frequency or time length. They always last for at least a few hours but most of the time they last for days. They decapacitate him to the point of not being able to go to work, drive or really do anything. He has fallen asleep at the wheel a few times and they even thought maybe it was narcolepsy but then ruled that out. Sometimes he can feel them coming on by having cold chills in his head and other times he is having them in his sleep. What happens is he becomes disoriented, his gait becomes unsteady, he slurs his speech, has trouble finding words, has dysuria and sometimes anuria even though he feels the urge to urinate, his pulse becomes very low 40's sometimes 50s, and he will fall asleep and cannot be aroused for hours. We have taken him to the ER, he has seen his primary, a neurologist and many others but so far nobody has found the right answer. The most recent dx is that he has seizures without convulsions and has been tried on numerous meds with numerous doses, all of which has not worked. I do not believe that it is seizures and have thought that it is something to do with his heart, the doctors say no because his EKG's come back fine. He has had numerous labs, EEGs and CAT scans done. He stayed in the hospital for three days once after having a bout of spells that lasted a few days, needless to say he couldn't get himself to have one while there. We are not even sure what brings them on. I have suggested they try a holter monitor but they aren't willing to try that because they are convinced it is seizures. These spells have just become worse over the years in frequency and severity, my fear is one day he is just going to have one so big that he won't wake up. A little hx on him: he is currently 50, had a stroke on the right side of his brain at the age of 22 that was the result of drugs and has left his left side of his body weaker with hypotonia and now has tunnel vision. He has hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, has a heart murmur, sleep apnea that he did have surgery to try to repair but did not work and he is now on the max for his cpap machine. His family does have a hx of alzheimer's disease and cardiac problems. Any thoughts or ideas?? Anything is a help, thank you so much!!