Managing personal care after seizures

Managing Personal Care After Seizures

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Managing personal care after seizures is difficult and frustrating. In ways, people wouldn’t understand. Let’s first talk about what is a seizure. The are two types of seizures. There are epileptic seizures and non-epileptic seizures (NES). My experience is with epileptic seizures. But I am a loving supporter of a person with NES because of FND.

Out of epileptic seizures, there are two types: focal seizures and generalized seizures. Focal Seizures are in what part of the brain and cause mild and severe symptoms. Those symptoms can range from

• loss of awareness or contact
• Lip smacking
• Repetitive movements
• Unusual sensations or thoughts

Generalized seizures can start as Focal seizures and then affect both sides of the brain or can start at the same time on both sides of the brain. The symptoms can range from:

• Muscles becoming stiff
• Sudden unexpected loss of muscle strength or tone
• Short, lighting-quick jerking movements
• Periods of rhythmic shaking and jerking movements

I fit in the tonic clonic seizure having an episode of both symptoms. The seizure starts in one part of my brain and then affects both sides of my brain.

Now managing personal care after a seizure is very important. If you are a person like me. You have woken up with extreme headaches, and sore muscles, you might have hit your head or other body parts on something causing body injuries. My experience was having a grand mal or Tonic-clonic seizure at a public tavern. Falling into the person on a stool standing next to me and then the cement floor.

After events like these, we the people with epilepsy have to work recovering from the injuries, headaches, or household damage we may have done to personal items. I want to go over ways to improve your recovery and how to manage personal care after a seizure.

Understanding Personal Care Challenges After Seizures

Have you recovered from a seizure with a severe headache that no medicine will make go away, a bitten tongue, or in my case throwing up and it inserted into my lungs causing pneumonia. These are all difficult side effects of epileptic seizures,

These after-effects can cause difficulty in moving forward in daily life. I covered some of the mental effects seizures can have on you. Click this link if you want to learn more. The aftermath can make things like a shower, eating something, or just getting out of bed extremely challenging.

Besides physical what about mental? Have you ever woken up still floating in the clouds, confused by your surroundings, or the whole situation? Have you had a following episode of anxiety or depression because of the seizure and the aftermath of the seizure? That is reasonable, most people, like me, understand those states of mind or emotions 100%. Never think you are alone on this journey. 3.4 million people in the US deal with epilepsy too.

Personal Care Strategies for Post-Seizure Recovery

Let’s go over some key things that can help you recover after a seizure.

Rest and Recovery period

I know this myself, besides headaches, there was extreme tiredness. Following most tonic-clonic seizures (grand mal). It can take sleep or just a period of relaxing and avoiding stress to help you in a speedy recovery.

Setting up a safe and comfortable environment

After a seizure, the last thing you need is to be in a stressful or hostile environment. For me, it used to be music. Being there can be more than just music. You can make your environment comfortable and safe with help from family, friends, or services. But you can also help by being prepared for seizures. Examples are:

• Safety bars in showers or other parts of the restroom. I am working on getting one that just covers from one to the other side of the bathroom wall.
• Anti-slip mattes for out of the shower, in front of the kitchen sink, or if have a solid floor with no carpet put more around as rugs throughout the floor of the apartment or house.
• Have chairs with arms to help prevent falling
• Avoid space heaters
• Have irons for clothing with automatic turn-offs to avoid being burned
• If possible, have carpet floors with heavy tile and thick underpadding

Depending on how severe your seizures can be there are many more things you can do. On the website www.epilepsy.com the article Creating a home environment for seizure cover many more things you can do to your home for it to be safer. For relaxation and support use things like:

• Scents
• Soft blankets
• Cuddle with loved ones (people or pets) My dogs are one of my tools

Hydration, Nutrition, and Physical Hygiene

After a seizure there are a few tasks, you should do after. From drinking enough water to staying hydrated. Your body uses up a good amount of water during the seizure just like it uses energy. Drinking enough water is a good step in recovery recommendations are 2 liters per day but there is no set amount for after a seizure, but a small bottle of 24 oz is recommended.

 All come with nutrition. After a seizure food can be helpful. Be careful of how much you eat and how much effort you put into the meal for lack of energy after seizures. But the epilepsy foundation recommendations are healthy microwave meals, and easy health snacks, like fruit or energy bars. Fruit is possible but be careful because of the possible difficulty of swallowing following seizures. My wife with her FND around the times before and after NES my wife has a difficult time swallowing.

Next comes Physical Hygiene. After a seizure, you are low on energy and at the same time, more mini-seizures can follow the large beginning seizure. Instead of full showers or baths use medical wipes or skin-friendly sanitizer wipes. If things like throwing up etc. happen then change clothing if required for hygiene reasons. Be wise about how much energy use. If you still feel weak and tired the wipes work fine or waiting for a little is not bad either. Cleaning up yourself is necessary still.

Building a Supportive Personal Care Routine

Daily routines help with your energy level and what can get done for the day. There is a daily routine that helps you move forward and almost energy level.

• Scheduled time of taking medication daily (I work on this every day)
• Regular time of meals (helps with energy levels)
• Hygiene task (can make you feel healthier and more comfortable at home)
•  Common time set for sleep (helps with energy, emotions, etc.)
• Exercising regularly

These daily routines help with energy, emotion, and health of the body. I will link to a wonderful book called Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk. It helps in understanding how our bodies can affect and control our mood and mental state of mind if it is a state of fear or if it feels it should be in a state of panic or defense. I recommend it. The blog article Mental health benefits of exercise: proven tips to reduce anxiety and depression points out how exercise helps with your mental state which can also help with a chance of triggering seizures.

There now comes support from family, friends, and care providers. It is understood that epilepsy can be embracing to some people, my self-included when comes to asking for help. I know I wished that I could do some of the daily things everyone else could but with my seizures, some tasks were not healthy to do myself.

• Need help with transportation
• Cooking
• Cleaning at home
• Self-care
• Grocery shopping
• Affording bills
• Budgeting

These are all things and more that some people with epilepsy need help with. In some countries, there is a disability for help with epilepsy. In America there is disability, but it is difficult generally and sometimes extremely difficult for people to qualify for and be given disability benefits.

Even without disability, there are still resources you can use to help with problems. Family is a big support for some. Family can help with almost all of the tasks. Friends can help too like family. Private insurance can help with caretaking and support. Local charities or non-profit organizations can be supportive with food, housing, financial assistance, and much more.

There is always what you can do for yourself when it comes to self-care. To help you with stress and the mental state of your mind, there is journaling, and talking to a Professionalist. Walking, reading, listening to music, doing artwork, yoga, and writing.  You can keep hobbies to help move forward in life. My hobby now professionally is writing and drawing. Hobbies can help calm the mind and keep you occupied from thinking about out-of-control parts of life.

Practical Tools and Resources

Here are some tools for personal health care that may help after seizures or can just make it easier all in life.

• Seizure record notebooks https://amzn.to/4fI4INk
• Portable Oral Irrigator https://amzn.to/3O0oDLl
• Heating pad for back pain relief https://amzn.to/3YXI4KZ
• Peppermint Essential Oil https://amzn.to/3O2EWra
• Lavander Essential Oil https://amzn.to/40YG9HR
• Healing Crystal Orgone Pyramid https://amzn.to/4fD1nPo
• Air Wick Essential Mist starter https://amzn.to/40FyuxB
• Flowtime Biosense Headband https://amzn.to/3UKwgcx
• Medical Alert Epilepsy bracelet https://amzn.to/3O23gJC

Now what about tech tools to use to help keep track of your wellness, count on seizures or body temperatures

• WHOOP 4 Fitness & activity tracker https://amzn.to/4fbv4Hv
• 30 days for yoga beginners https://amzn.to/3YJwYb9
• Yoga for health fitness app https://amzn.to/4hFnk2a
• RingConn Gen 1Fitness ring https://amzn.to/3YG5h36
• KardiaModel Personal EKG https://amzn.to/4enY0L5

All of these products help with tracking seizures, keeping records of health conditions, seizure record keeping, and vital sign trackers but you still need to reach out to health professionals. A nurse can visit your home with some insurance. Keeping logs of seizure activity and taking it to the doctor can help intensively.

Managing personal care after seizures is important. Setting up plans in case of a seizure has better results than having a seizure without preparation. Preparing makes it so you can recover sooner. Epilepsy is a difficult thing to live with. The aftermath of seizures can be one of the most depressing and hard to recover from, but life can get better, recovery is possible and the more prepared you are the more positive the results can be. Always keep a positive mind and be optimistic about the future.

(This article is an informational and personal experience article only. If you have any symptoms or questions related to your health, talk to your neurologist, nurse, or local doctor first.)