Candid Talk With Kait

QUESTION: What does it feel like to have a seizure?

KAITLIN:  I have three types of seizures.  I have simple partial seizures which create intense stomach pain and nausea.  Sometimes they make me throw up and I sleep afterward.  Sometimes I don't throw up and just sleep from it.  And sometimes I don't throw up or sleep but am kind of "out of it" as in I am a little clumsy, tired, and just feeling "blah".  I also have complex partial seizures.  These are hard to explain but I'll try.  I don't feel these coming on and don't even know I'm having one until after it's over and someone tells me I had one.  I hear everything and think I'm responding to people but I'm really not.  It's kind of like the world is moving in slow motion.  What others see is that my head and eyes turn left and my left arm might stiffen and I appear to be staring.  I am usually a little tired after these but I don't usually fall asleep.  I usually feel 100% better within an hour of this type of seizure.  The last seizure type I have are tonic clonics.  I don't feel these coming on and I don't know they are happening.  I don't remember them either.  When I come out of a seizure I am really, really tired and my muscles are really, really sore.  Sometimes I am more tired and more sore than other times.  What others see is that I usually start by having a complex partial and it spreads to a tonic clonic.  Right now it is possible that I am still having multiple seizures a day that I'm not aware of and that my parents are not aware of.  My last VEEG showed that I was having 50 + smaller seizures a day.  They are so short (3 seconds) that I don't even know it's happening and chances are you wouldn't know it's happening if you were looking at me when it happened.  Seizures don't cause me any type of pain when they happen.