Sam's story: An unexpected diagnosis
One night in July seemed like any other night at first. Sam Brooks was at home with her daughter, drifting asleep while watching TV. When her daughter left the room to get a glass of water and returned, she was startled to realize Sam had thrown up and wasn’t awake. She immediately called her grandma and started to help clean her mom up. When Sam regained consciousness, she was groggy but understood that her mom was coming over and they were taking her to Grant Regional’s ER.
“Later my daughter told me that we had a full conversation, but I didn’t remember it. My whole body felt as though it had been hit by a train and my brain was foggy, which made it hard to recall everything that was happening.”
At the ER, the doctor quickly assessed Sam’s situation and based on her recollection and what her daughter had observed, he believed that she had a seizure. He ordered blood work, a CT scan and X-rays to rule out any other causes that would have made Sam lose consciousness. A lab tech was able to come down right away and collect blood. They were quick, but precise, in everything that they did. The radiology technician explained the scans and what Sam had to do in a way that she understood the process clearly.
“Everything came back fine, and after being observed for a while I was sent home with the plan of following up with a primary care provider. It did take me a week to wrap my brain around what had happened.”
“After this, I was able to have a follow-up with Kate Reuter. She listened to everything that happened.”
Sam explained to Kate that the week following her visit to the ER, she felt as though she was walking on a cloud, and her entire body was very sore. Kate also suspected the same culprit – a seizure. The next steps were to order an EEG and refer Sam to a neurologist. Kate wanted to have the EEG completed before the neurologist visit, so they would have everything that they needed to help speed up the diagnosis process.
“Within 48 hours, I was contacted by the scheduling department at Grant Regional Health Center to set up my EEG, and the appointment was set up for the following week. When the day came for my EEG, I was nervous. This was something that I had never experienced, so I didn’t know what to expect. Destani was the one that completed my EEG. From start to finish, she explained every step and what to expect. Since I was supposed to be tired, she turned down the lights and spoke softly. As she placed all the stickers on my head, she talked about how the test had evolved throughout the years, and how the accuracy had improved. This simple additional information put my mind at ease that we were taking the right steps. The EEG took roughly an hour. When it was finished, she told me when I would be able to see the results, and who to reach out to if I had any questions.”
The results from EEG did not show any seizure like activity, however, upon follow-up with the neurologist, Sam was diagnosed with Epilepsy. She was given a couple of options moving forward and considering the chances of having another seizure.
She explains, “First, I could go on living my life and see if I had another seizure. Second, I could request further testing, even though GRHC had already completed all the testing that he would have done. Or third, and my ultimate choice, be proactive and go on a medication to prevent it from happening again. “I still do everything that I did before, but now I take a single pill every night. I know without the care that I received at GRHC, I wouldn’t have been as comfortable as I was when I saw my neurologist. Most of my questions and concerns were answered before I even went to see him. I will forever be grateful for the staff in the ER, radiology and lab during the night in late July. In addition, I am tremendously grateful for the help of Kate and Destani. They were able to assist me in putting the pieces together to better understand what had happened and pointing me in the right direction of care."