Pasoido-seizures

Here are two funny stories, that though they are second-hand, I thought I'd pass along.

As we in neurology like to say, not all that shakes is a seizure. The statistics are that roughly 50% of patients admitted for seizure monitoring aren't actually having seizures. Their spells are pseudoseizures, which can be conscious or unconscious. With that preface, here are the stories:

1) A colleague of mine was called to the ER last night to evaluate a patient who was having increased frequency of seizures uncontrolled on his medicine. In taking a history, she found that the patient had recently been admitted to the hospital for workup of his seizures. When she asked that patient what they had found regarding his seizures, he said, "oh, they told me that I have a type of seizure called 'pasoido-seizures' or something like that." Obviously someone didn't explain well enough to him what that term means. Either that or his denial is very strong.

2) I heard about another patient a few weeks back who was air-lifted here from another hospital, where she had been sedated/intubated for status epilepticus (prolonged or back-to-back seizures). She was allowed to wake up and had the breathing tube removed. Her first words were, "I told those ER doctors while I was seizing NOT to intubate me because I have pseudoseizures, but they did it anyway." For those who don't know, the ability to talk during a seizure pretty much rules it out as a seizure and definitely rules out status epilepticus. At least the patient had good insight into her problem.

B'ham

So we've now arrived in Birmingham. Some stories from the road:

-We rented a 16 foot truck and drove it ourselves from Texas. The only way that worked was hiring men locally to load and unload the truck on each end of the trip. Since we've been married for over 3 years, we've managed to accumulate quite a load of stuff, and when the moving men arrived to load our stuff in the truck, they all said, "um, I don't think your stuff is going to fit." We got really worried and started to come up with contingency plans. Luckily, though, they found a way to cram all our stuff on there. I've never seen a truck packed like that. Every drawer, nook, and cranny was crammed to the brim all the way to the ceiling. I should have taken a picture of it. Yet since they tied everything down so well, everything made it in one piece. Amazing.

- Birmingham is hilly, and though our house is on a relatively flat lot, it is up a steep hill. Thus, climbing the hill with the packed truck was quite an adventure. I was flooring it yet still rolling slightly backwards. That was scary, as I pictured myself careening backwards out of control. But luckily it finally took hold, and we started creeping up the hill.

- While we were driving, a fancy Lamborghini whizzed past us on the highway. It was especially odd since we were in Chunky, Mississippi. I wonder where you buy a Lamborghini in Chunky, Mississippi.

- We used walkie talkies since I was driving the truck, and Janelle was driving our car. About halfway through the trip, we heard someone say, "yeah baby, that's what I'm talkin' about." There was a pause, and then Janelle said, "uh, Victor, that wasn't you, was it?" Needless to say, we switched to channel 2 on the walkie talkies for the rest of the trip.

- Our new house is less than a mile from Home Depot, which is great. We've literally been there 15 times already. Sheesh, I really should buy their stock.