Rage

Lisbeth is having rage episodes again. We are going to reduce her Keppra once more with the hope that we can find a healthy balance. The Keppra is doing an amazing job as far as her seizure control, but we are still seeing frequent episodes like the one filmed here. Be advised upon viewing that this video contains loud profanity. Lisbeth and her helper, Caitlin Geary, came over this afternoon to take a swim in our pool, but Lisbeth didn't swim. Her behavior started to escalate (it can turn on a dime). Lisbeth has no control over her behavior during a rage attack, just like she has no control over a seizure. Typically she swears and hits and/or throws things. We have to administer her PRN lorazepam in these instances. When Lis was younger and had rages, her worst words were, YOU'RE FAT! YOU'RE FAT AS A CAT!! Then when she got older, around high school age, she had a rage one day and stunned us all with some brand new vocabulary words - she'd learned how to swear! To this day, these are the only two swear words that she knows, and she directs them towards men and women alike. Her high school special ed teacher used to joke with us that she was going to teach Lisbeth some gender specific swear words. No thanks. This is quite enough...

About 20 minutes after the lorazepam...

Thank God for medication.

The Line Pill

Garry and I planned to have dinner together with Lisbeth last night at her favorite restaurant, China Rose. She loves the Chinese food. I picked Lisbeth up from her house and we arrived at the restaurant a few minutes before Garry, who was coming to meet us on his way home from work. Lisbeth's staff informed me that they had given her 1 mg of lorazapam at 5:00 because she was complaining about her eyes hurting and having the scary seizure feeling (aura). While we were waiting for her Dad, Lis began to experience strong seizure auras. This sometimes manifests by her eyes darting upward, and out toward each wall (forgive me now, but my dark humor has kept me sane throughout my journey with Lisbeth) and this song comes immediately to mind. Lisbeth says she sees the lines, as in an ocular migraine. These unusaul auras started to occur for Lisbeth a few years ago, and we described it to her neurologist. He brushed it off and said that this was just anxiety, and probably a behaviorial thing. He'd never actually seen Lisbeth going through this. He always was impatient, in a rush, with one foot out the door. (For the record, we do not see this doctor any longer. In fact, he had his license suspended for drug addiction. Hmmm, could explain his impatience...) I have never taped Lis having an aura like this before, and last night I caught a couple of minutes of it on this video. Lisbeth's current neurologist has instructed us to give Lisbeth her PRN lorazepam when this happens - Lis is obviously experiencing some sort of neurological disturbance - not a full blown seizure, just the edges of one. Lisbeth calls the lorazepam the line pill, because we give it to her when she sees the lines. Can you imagine anyone suggesting that this is behavioral?

It lasted about 1o minutes before her lorazepam kicked in, and then Lisbeth was able to enjoy her dinner. Thank God for meds.