My mom's hands are moving and her facial expressions change when she falls asleep and sometimes in a dream. She does not remember this. It looks a little scary.
Half a year my mother took valproic acid (Depakin) 500mg a day. However, a month ago an electroencephalogram showed the absence of an epileptic activity and we stopped taking it. Perhaps, the trembling of the hands and facial expressions when falling asleep increased.
What could this mean?
Half a year my mother took valproic acid (Depakin) 500mg a day. However, a month ago an electroencephalogram showed the absence of an epileptic activity and we stopped taking it. Perhaps, the trembling of the hands and facial expressions when falling asleep increased.
What could this mean?
Hi Semyon,
ReplyDeleteI feel your frustration. Since completing radiation therapy (2017 July) my husband started having hand tremors while sleeping, occasionally making weird gestures and I noticed a strange look on his face, here and there. Sometimes he pointed at things, bit into the air, made chewing movements and even groaned a little once in a while. I told him about these activities but we didn't really care about it. He never took AEDs as a prevention.
In April, this year, he had a grand mal, also while sleeping, and was prescribed 3 x 300 mg valproic acid. After that happened, we told the oncologist about these strange nocturnal activities and he said that he was not an expert on this field and he wasn't even allowed to prescribe AEDs officially so we should go to the local neurology for medication adjustments. Our GP said that the neurologists in the local hospital were very young and inexperienced so we should find an epilepsy specialist.
At this point, we put this thing on hold because my husband freaked out that he didn't want to spend his life in hospitals and didn't want any new medications (we read that some people take 2-3 different AEDs to resolve all their issues). I have to admit that I don't sleep so well since these "movements" started (these can happen multiple times a night) but this should be his decision so I don't push him.
Now we're experimenting with increasing valproic acid to 1200 mg from 900 mg because the patient information leaflet says that the typical dose of VA should be 1200-2000 mg (20-30 mg/ kg) and now he takes it right before going to sleep all at once, not 3 times a day as he was told. We also started to pause Silymarin which, in theory, may decrease VA's efficacy. It's too early to say but I started to see some improvement. He slept like a baby in the last several days.
Does your mother have nightmares? My husband has them very frequently and I see some connection between these symptoms and nightmares. A week ago I woke up to him murmuring gibberish while sleeping (of course accompanied by hands lifted up in the air) and he seemed very scared so I woke him up. He thanked me because he had such a horrible nightmare that I even needed to follow him to the toilet after that. He always underestimates these issues but this time he felt that this nightmare could have provoke a seizure again because the stimulus had been so strong, he could't really put it into words.
Another strange thing that I experienced, occasionally his breathing changes to a snoring sound although he never snored before... almost like he's having difficulty breathing but I'm not sure. It lasts only a few minutes.
Otherwise he is doing quite OK so we are not too worried. How is your mother doing?
Dear Ildi! Thank you very much for your answer!
DeleteMy mother does not have nightmares. Before going to bed, she takes 20mg of melatonin or 50mg of agomelatine and sleeps well.
In a dream, she can move with her mouth, as if she chews something, moves her hands, raises them slightly. It's very scary to look at all this (
Sometimes she snores, but I'm not sure that she did not snore before.
Now we are doing a very aggressive treatment: 6 days a week of a dropper (DCA, curcumin, vitamin C) and I have to watch it all when she falls asleep during the IVs. As soon as she wakes up, she feels very good.