Busy day for madam today. She had Big Grampy visiting this morning. He always gets a good reception (when she can be bothered to stay awake!!). Big Grampy is my Dad. He tries to visit Helen about once a week, in between his other "positions" as husband, carer for his mother-in-law, volunteer museum person (?), fisherman, football watcher, gardener, barman and general all round great person! Since Helen's accident he has always read to her. He has read anything from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to the newspaper to Private Eye to the current book of poems.
This afternoon Rachael and James visited followed by me about an hour later. Rachael told me that she thought Helen had had a fit soon after she got there. Violet took me to one side and said that she had had a fit lasting about a minute. It turns out it wasn't the first one she had suffered. She had one last at the beginning of August, one in July. three in June and a couple prior to that. I didn't know any of this!! I told Violet that I asked the GP why Helen was on an anti epileptic medication and he said it was prophylactic. Obviously this isn't quite the correct story.
I spoke with Dad later and it turns out that Helen had a fit while he was there as well. He told one of the nurses. Fits only need "treatment" or intervention if they last more than three minutes. Most of hers have been about a minute. After speaking with Dad, it appears that she almost certainly had one when he was there this morning. He reported it to staff.
Rachael and I took Helen upstairs. The stroke club were there but we went into one corner. Helen was sick while we were up there. I took her back to her room and Violet and I cleaned and changed her before going back up again.
Helen went back to bed about 530 and just after they got her back to bed, she had another fit. This one lasts about 40 seconds. Then about an hour later, she was sick again!! It might be that she is brewing something or it might be that she just has a stomach bug, or it could be the fits and the brain activity that are causing the sickness. I told Violet that I can be called at any time during the night if necessary and that I would call tomorrow to see how Helen is.
It's just worrying that there were a few fits all within a fairly short time and that she vomited twice as well.