Absences

[Court]

Please ignore my earlier post on this subject. I have recently had a couple of occasions where I was 'absent' for a couple of seconds, I felt sounds going further away and my husband said I leaned over to my right hand side, my Parkinsons side. I did not answer when he spoke to me. My eyes were closed. It only lasted for a couple of seconds. I will be seeing my GP, but I often find that this site provides the answers first as I believe you have to experience something to know how it feels.

[Pete-1]

Do you have a bit of trouble feeling dizzy after standing - Orthostatic Hypotention - low blood pressure, not particularly dangerous except for the possibility of passing out and hurting yourself on the way down.

Sudden reduced blood sugar level, did you not eat for quite a long time prior to your absences?

This is a big guess, I have no medical training but If you have a clogged up coronary artery this could make you pass out . This is easily treated by the fitting of a stent to the clogged artery. A stent being a tube shaped wire mesh that is sprung such that it pushes upon the constraining vessel to widen it and permit flow again Simple procedure not even needing a general anaesthetic. Loads of info. on stents on the web, just google stent.

There's probably a myriad of possible causes for such absences.

I think it would indeed be a good plan to see your GP urgently as sometimes a a seemingly minor symptom can indicate a quite serious problem.

[Court in reply to Pete-1]

Hi Pete. I am seeing my GP on Wednesday. The other day I was dizzy when I stood up and my husband took my blood pressure. The top reading was ok, but the bottom reading was low. Maybe this is the cause. I will see what my GP says. I also have an appointment with my Parkinsons Consultant in a few weeks so hopefully should get some feedback. Thanks for answering.

[Hikoi]

do you think this is a sleep attack?

"The most worrying aspect of sleepiness in PD is the sleep attack, defined as 'sudden onset of sleep..... Examples of sleep attacks include patients falling asleep during eating a meal (the head dropping onto the plate), walking, attending work, carrying a child on an escalator, and, in the most dangerous situation, while driving a car. Estimates of the percentage of patients with PD experiencing sleep attacks vary from 1-14%."

Court I often just stop myself falling off the chair having slipped into sleep. I lean over on my affected side.

[Court in reply to Hikoi]

I have never heard of sleep attacks, so was interested to read your reply. I do not sleep well. I wake after about two hours and get maybe another couple of hours sleep before I have to get up. This could well be part of my problem. I shall find out more about this. Thanks.

[hunnypot in reply to Hikoi]

I think I may be experiencing ' sleep attacks' and it would explain the accident I had . I will bring this up to my doctor. I new this was the best site for me . thanks

[paddyfields]

A couple of years back I had a run of 3 or 4 "not quite sure whats". On each occasion I was with people where I could not readily pursue the question of whether I closed my eyes , e.g. fish and chip shop just as I was ordering and at asocial gathering where I knew no one. I felt it as an absence and a momentary swaying which I know from the look n the other person's face was a noticeable event. My neuro put it down to momentary postural problem and did not seem that concerned but I have recently been told I have a slight heart murmur and now wonder if the absences were related to the murmur.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Melodysam1890]

Your experience was similar to mine. I was talking with my husband over breakfast in 2008 when he said I "stared" at him a few moments, my eyes closed, I lost consciousness & fell from my chair. I awoke in an ambulance & thought it was a heart attack symptoms with headache, chest pains, & neck pains. It was a stroke. I returned to work a few weeks later & after many more strange symptoms & mostly on the right side, I was diagnosed with Parkinsons' in 2010.

[Hidden]

I was a teacher and one day in class a boy was arguing quite forcefully about his exam results. He went on and on. I stood there listening but saying little, i was exercising patience but finding it very hard, 'very painful' you might say.

At the next lesson I got the class reading (a different class) while I stood at the top of the room. I could see everything was in order, the pupils were seated and the place was quiet ( which was quite unusual for that class) Trouble was, I wasn't completely there. I could see and hear everything but part of my consciousness was missing. This lasted several seconds and passed. I was convinced that I had had a minor stroke.

When I told my GP he said that I was experiencing some typical teacher stress. I was quite pleased with this. I had already experienced years of teacher stress and always managed to get through it. As long as it wasn't a stroke. But I never spoke to a doctor about it again.