Seizure

I had a seizure on Tuesday during my training.

I was preparing bandages for a casualty who accidentally cut his fingernail with a knife, and before I knew it, my mind went blank; my eyes went blank; I just blackout and fell down.

Then, I remembered nothing.

There seem to be a sudden gap in my memory, or it can also be described as "the time suddenly stops". Such an experience is difficulty to express using words.

But, what is a seizure, as some may inquire.

What happened to me most probably is a tonic-clonic seizure, also known as major epilepsy.

For more information, check out this website: http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/tonic.html

Anyway, before I collapsed, I saw "black spots" forming in front of my eyes. I knew that I was going to collapse at that point of time, but before my brain could process the message , down i went, with my brain still in the midst of processing that message and it had already processed to "I am going to...". Before I could even think of the word "collapse", I already blackout.

I had no idea what was going on after I collapsed. Like I described earlier, it felt like there's a sudden "leap" in my memory. If my memory is a jigsaw puzzle, then that "leap" in my memory seems to be like a missing puzzle piece.

So here is how the timeline went:

1) "Black spots" forming
2) Blackout period
3) Heard some melody buzzing in my head. Sounds like Minghao's tune that he composed on Jeremy's phone.
4) Regaining consciousness

So basically there's a "missing link" between "i am going to...." and hearing the melody.

According to the recounts of my friends, I suddenly just collapsed and upon doing so, I hit my head twice. Once on the dressing table (since the sick bay used to be a dressing room for the drama club) before hitting the wooden frame of the bed in the sick bay.

Pam! Tam! Bam!

Down I went, the table, the bed, and finally the floor.

Surprisingly enough, I don't feel any sense of pain.

A sense of nothingness and don't-know-ness

It's an incredible and amazing feeling I must say.

When I was unconscious, I was witnessed to be twitching with my fists clenched tightly. My face went pale like I just had all my blood emptied and my body jerked about three times before I regain my vision and consciousness. The strange thing was, throughout my blackout period, my eyes were wide open, even though I can only "see" "blackness".

The moment I "opened" my eyes, I was so surprised that I was lying on the floor. The first thing that struck my mind was, "Oh no! This is so embarassing! Why am I sleeping on the floor?"

Then, about a fraction of a second later, I realised that there's more to this "sleeping" that meets the eye.

The subsequent thoughts that ran through my head were, "did I frighten the injured guy who's receiving treatment from us? Did the cadets see me in this state? What's happened to me?"

I only verbally expressed my lastly-mentioned concern, and only then I came to know that it was major epilepsy.

Wow. That was my first reaction upon knowing my situation.

In case you judge me as some sickly person, there's no known cause for a seizure. Having a seizure isn't as bad as you think, consider that only 3 out of 10 would experience it at least once in their lifetime.

It is caused by abnormal electrical discharges in the brain. Sometimes, stress and a lack of sleep can contribute to one. Well, I am highly inclined to think that the recent stress I had and the inadequate sleep I received during this hectic and devilish "test week" were the roots of my sudden scare.

I still could smile when I regain my consciousness. That's what my friends told me.

Well, after the whole trauma, I felt a little tired and my legs felt a little limp and wobbly.

All right, that's about all I've got to share. I hope that the information and relevant and useful to everyone. Just don't panic when you meet a case of seizure. Just remove anything near him and clear away from him, and do not crowd around!

For more information, look for me.