Why Was I Having Seizures and Terrible Headaches?

It took years for this teacher to learn the cause of her frightening symptoms.

- LINDSEY DE LOS SANTOS

One morning around 20 years ago, in my second year of teaching, I woke up feeling sick. I was about to call in and ask for a sub when I had this overwhelming sense of dizziness. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor. My then-husband told me that I'd had a seizure and he'd called 911. Apparently my arms and legs had been moving, but I had been passed out the whole time. I was so scared-I'd had no awareness that any of this had happened.

At the hospital, the doctors examined me and said I was fine. They thought I'd had the seizure because I was sick with a flu or other virus (given that I was teaching second graders at the time, there was always something going around), and they sent me home.

"OK, NOW IT'S A PATTERN"

Six months later it happened again; this time I was home by myself. I felt dizzy and nauseated, then woke up on the floor. I managed to call 911, and when I got to the hospital, they said, "OK, now we have a pattern."