Zoning out spells: Absence Seizures?

MA10,
First, I'm so sorry that you are going through this! I didn't have any testing done, but I do know that I was having absence seizures for a while based on this:

Atypical Absence Seizures

These absence seizures are called atypical because they may be longer, have a slower onset and offset, and involve different symptoms.
The seizure still starts with staring into space, usually with a blank look.
There is usually a change in muscle tone and movement. You may see
Blinking over and over that may look like fluttering of the eyelids
Smacking the lips or chewing movements
Rubbing fingers together or making other hand motions
An atypical absence seizure lasts longer, up to 20 seconds or more.


/www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-seizures/absence-seizures

No matter if they are verifiable seizures or not, I would encourage you to slow down your treatments and increase your detoxing right now to ease those symptoms.

I noticed that almost all of my seizure activities were connected to an overload of toxins. This may or may not be the case for you though. If your LLMD doesn't understand or believe you, believe in yourself, because this can turn serious.

Quite honestly, MA - you would likely know more than I or even the doctor would. What do you feel was the tipping point for your body?

And, rather than stopping something completely - can you go to lowered doses instead? I don't know what all your doctor is basing this on, but if it's testing, you can request more testing to see where you stand now with those issues and then determine what you may be able to push to the back burner for a bit until you get things to settle back down some.

You would need to check to be sure that these things won't interact or interfere too much with what your treatments are, but.....
What about milk thistle for your liver?
You could consider adding Quercetin to help with inflammation and toxins in the intestines.
Red root, or other lymph mover/cleanser?
Something for inflammation would likely be a big help too. I prefer to use naturals, so I use turmeric w/black pepper, ginger, bromelain for inflammation.

I would be very cautious adding in any more binders, due to the things you are treating right now though.

Hopefully others will be along soon with more suggestions.

Hi MA10. I rarely sign in here anymore, but I do read questions from time to time, and I feel I have to weigh in here and tell you my experience, or rather that of my companion who either contracted Lyme on his own or from me over the years.

This past Halloween afternoon I found him lying flat on his back several yards down my driveway. He was conscious, but completely without comprehension, and for some time, unable to move. I'll spare you the details, but he was diagnoses in the E.R. with focal seizure epilepsy.

I balked at the epilepsy diagnosis, but didn't know the seizures of this kind are not what we usually associate with it. Some of the symptoms he had been exhibiting for a very long time - years even. Such as the finger rubbing, spacing out, etc.

My research while he spent 3 days in the hospital matched what I found on line. I will leave you with two links. The code may be very wonky, but will work (I hope). There are 2 things I want to cue you in about, one is Focal Seizures can be caused by a bacterial infection, a Lyme is certainly a qualifier. And 2, the culprit is a damaged vagus nerve, and Lyme can infect it.

Keep in mind that my friend is now longer allowed to drive until he is at least 6 months seizure free. He's taking a medication but I don't see any difference in him at all. But thankfully I haven't found him flat on his back anywhere again, and pray to God I never do.

Good luck and best wishes to you, that you can get a handle on this and get better.


You will have to lighlight each code, and then click on "go to....." then it will work.

/r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrTcdTun2dapMQALysPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByb2lvbXVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1516769390/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2F%2Fwww.epilepsynewengland.org%2Ffocal-impaired-awareness-seizures/RK=2/RS=VT8voMWN9otq0SrkK_u6n8YBmLk-

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrgEZRnoWdaI2gAbBgPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByYnR1Zmd1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1516769767/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2F%2Flatitudes.org%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F11835-vagus-nerve-involvement-with-lyme-disease%2F/RK=2/RS=qkOVy.IUnN.W3oLAVFtl6wJFIYs-

julymorning, thanks so much for the info! I didn't know about the vagus nerve involvement. That's interesting. So glad your friend had you there to help him!

It's interesting that you say that about the stress and missing meals. Now that you mention it, missing meals actually very well could be a trigger for me right now. I've noticed low blood sugar plays into it. Thanks for making that connection for me.

MA10 said...
Within recent days I have began to notice several zoning out episodes throughout the day. (and the longer I think about it, I feel like they've been going on a while but just getting worse.) It's like I just space out with this blank stare on my face. It lasts 2-4 seconds usually, and am usually somewhat unaware of what is happening around me. Like I may hear sound if someone is talking, but I am not able to make out the words often times. It's a complete zone out. A lot of times my vision will get blurry. It's like I get hyper-focused on something, zone out, then that something becomes blurry. It is worse on days that I am more fatigued, stressed, or in stimulating environments.

The other night at dinner I was focused on my phone then randomly looked up, zoned out, my vision got blurry, and then the sound seemed to fade away to the background.

You describe exactly the "zoning out" episodes that happened to me as well only after lyme.

It's for a few seconds, where I catch myself and realize it's happening and I snap out of it.

While I was reading your post, I said to myself "me too, however my vision gets blurry", then I kept reading and you mention yours does too. And I was like "YES!, exactly like me".

I contribute it to "brain fog". When I take herbs and supps specifically for brain fog it doesn't happen.

Like many other lyme symptoms it happens in cycles. I'll go weeks, maybe months without it happening but then have like week where it's happening.

I just put something like this in the natural herxing cycle that we lymies go through, throughout life.

I get those absence seizures too. I only notice them if I try to drive. It's really scary. I will zone out while I think I'm paying attention. I agree that it's probably caused by toxins.

MA10 said...
dacarte3, that's kind of what I'm wondering if it is. That's what I've always attributed it to. But the symptoms sound just like an absence seizure. Whatever it is, it's inconvenient and dangerous at times.

Do share! What herbs and supplements do you take for brain fog? Maybe that would be a good way to test and see if it is just brain fog. It could be that the seizures are caused by brain toxicity, and your herbs and supplements help clean out the brain. Thanks for the info!

The herbs I've had success with that helps with cognitive/neuro symptoms are:

1. Pinella
2. Burbur
3. Choline (the molecule that give certain foods the nickname "brain food", like fish and eggs)
4. EGCG (green tea extract)
5. Huperzine A (chinese club moss).

"zoning out"........as in lethargic? That can be a hypothyoid symptom too, and I see your Hashi in your signature line.

Personally I think lethargic episodes are your brains way of taking a nap while your body is awake. When this happened to me, my eyes would lock in blank stare and people would notice! My brain was in la la land for 10-15 seconds. I could see fine, but was not aware of what my site was focused on, since I was not focused.

I had short term vision / blindness problems but that was after waking in the AM, not some lethargic episode, was not related.

Post Edited (astroman) : 1/25/2018 12:32:57 PM (GMT-7)

Astroman, I’m normally spacey. Just kind of in my own world. But these seem a little different. Sometimes I catch myself thinking about something and then spacing out. But these kind of seem to just happen. I can be fully focused on something and then go to full unfocused and just blank. A lot of times I’m not thinking about anything when these happen. But yes, I do agree. A lot of my spacing out is legarthic spacing. Like I’m too tired to think.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Spanish. Good luck treating! It’s my hope that your seizures will slowly go away as you kill the bugs.

astroman said...
"zoning out"........as in lethargic? That can be a hypothyoid symptom too, and I see your Hashi in your signature line.

Personally I think lethargic episodes are your brains way of taking a nap while your body is awake. When this happened to me, my eyes would lock in blank stare and people would notice! My brain was in la la land for 10-15 seconds. I could see fine, but was not aware of what my site was focused on, since I was not focused.

I had short term vision / blindness problems but that was after waking in the AM, not some lethargic episode, was not related.

I get the lethargy frequently but my zoning out does not make me unaware of where I am or what I'm doing-not for even a moment. My thoughts just become very dream-like and nonsensical. My friend that has this is completely 'unaware'. It can last a few seconds or 20 minutes or so. Eyes open and staring, but not registering most of the time during these. But sometimes he is just out and it takes me some doing to bring him out of it. He is not aware that anything odd has happened when he comes out of it. I thought he was having a stroke. This is why he is not supposed to drive. His paperwork from the hospital says he shouldn't even bathe or swim unattended or drive even a riding lawn mower. All this time I thought he was passing out from alcohol, though he was denying drinking.

When I saw that this was related to the vagus nerve and that bacterial infections can do this, I connected the Lyme/vagus nerve dots and the fact that he has never done any kind of treatment for Lyme, or anything else for that matter, there's no telling what kind of damage has taken place over the years. 13 if he got Lyme from me.

astroman said...
"zoning out"........as in lethargic? That can be a hypothyoid symptom too, and I see your Hashi in your signature line.

Personally I think lethargic episodes are your brains way of taking a nap while your body is awake. When this happened to me, my eyes would lock in blank stare and people would notice! My brain was in la la land for 10-15 seconds. I could see fine, but was not aware of what my site was focused on, since I was not focused.

I had short term vision / blindness problems but that was after waking in the AM, not some lethargic episode, was not related.

You describe it perfectly.