Accused of being ‘drunk’ at work, 22-year-old discovers she actually has EPILEPSY

A 22-year-old NHS worker discovered he had undiagnosed epilepsy when a colleague called him to see a doctor after being “drunk” at work.

Liverpool’s Annie Newcomen suffered from “episodes” causing sudden brain fog and amnesia several times a day before her diagnosis in March.

Her speech therapist erased her symptoms for weeks, but she was taken to the emergency room by a colleague who thought she was “hiding the fact that she was drunk.”

After initially diagnosing stress, doctors eventually discovered that Ms. Newcomen had mini-seizures and had epilepsy.

He is now taking medications that reduce the frequency of seizures from three times a day to several times a week.

However, she can no longer drive, bathe, or swim without a lifeguard and cannot return to work until her seizures are fully controlled.

Ms Newcomen told ECO Liverpool: ‘I continued to feel awkward at my job, I had a lot of déjà vu experiences.

“I used to feel like I forgot everything, I’d be on the ward and go to the office but forgot why I was there or what I was doing.”

Ms. Newcomen was taken to the emergency room by a colleague after suffering from these symptoms for weeks.

“I was taken to the ER that day, one of my colleagues said it looked like I was hiding when he heard something was going on, I was drunk, that’s how I introduced myself,” he said.

Doctors told Ms. Newcomen that her symptoms were stress-related, but she knew they had overlooked something.

She said: “I didn’t feel stressed. So my job can be stressful sometimes, but I wasn’t stressed. Everyone’s job is a little stressful,” he said.

Ms. Newcomen contacted her GP the next day and referred him to the Walton Center, a neurological hospital in Fazakerley, Liverpool, for a specialist in late March.

While waiting for her appointment, she had blood tests and an electrocardiogram (EKG) test that monitors her heart rhythm and electrical activity.

Her results were normal, but Ms. Newcomen still had intermittent symptoms. “Some days I’ll be fine, others not,” she said.

One day, when he was “really ill”, he called the specialist hospital and the appointment was postponed to the next day.

Ms. Newcomen told neurologists that she suffers from “periods” where she “can’t speak” and will develop a “confused brain”.

“She turned around and told me I had epilepsy,” she said.

Epilepsy is a condition that affects the brain and puts patients at risk for seizures.

Seizures occur when there is a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain, which stops the brain from working.

The doctor also revealed that Ms. Newcomen suffered from focal seizures known as partial seizures, which can cause a strange general feeling that is difficult to describe, a feeling that things have happened before, and stiffness or twitching in one part of the body.

Some patients also experience unusual smells or tastes, tingling in the arms and legs, and intense feelings of joy or fear. Attacks usually pass within seconds or minutes.

Ms. Newcomen’s complaints stem from stress, fatigue and skipping meals.

She said: “I was shocked, I thought epilepsy was something you could only have as a kid and grow with, I didn’t think it could happen in adulthood. He told me he could take it at any age.

The diagnosis of epilepsy is primarily based on a person’s symptoms, and EKG and MRI brain scans may be done, but these often fail to detect epilepsy.

About one in 100 people suffer from this condition, especially older people. And 1,000 people die each year in the UK from causes related to epilepsy.

The speech therapist is still waiting for the results of an electrocardiogram, which is expected by the end of this month, but he was told that he would have epilepsy even if the test “came back”.

He is no longer allowed to drive, bathe or swim without a lifeguard.

He said: “Most of my independence has been taken from me. Then I had about two or three attacks a day for about three weeks.’

After doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as stress related, Ms. Newcomen was diagnosed with epilepsy, in which her symptoms were actually focal signs of seizures. Ms. Newcomen is now taking medications that reduce her seizures from two or three times a day to a few times a week.

Ms. Newcomen is on medication and said her seizure frequency has dropped from three a day to three a week.

During the attacks, Ms. Newcomen said, ‘My body is shaking, it’s not a fall type attack. My eyes are trembling, I’m completely silent – as if I’m walking out of the room – I’m still conscious but my mind is not there.

He said it took him six or seven minutes to speak.

“I am a speech therapist, for the last five years of my life I focused on speech and communication, and when I couldn’t communicate, I knew something was wrong,” said Ms. Newcomen. she said.

“It has been a big life change for me. Instead of treating patients like I treat patients who have had epilepsy surgery, I had to accept that it happened to me and now I am the patient.

“As for my job, for now I have to wait for my attacks to be under control, but the job supports me very well and really understands what’s going on.”

He added: “My outlook on life has completely changed. I know it’s a cliché but life is so short, I got scared when I thought it might be a brain tumor or something, no matter how strange it is, if it makes sense, I’m lucky it’s just epilepsy.

“I’m watching right now, you can’t take anything lightly and you should enjoy everything you have in life. You realize how lucky you are when they are taken from you, like going to work or driving.’