Christa remembered that it was only a couple of months after Joe had been back from college that he had his first seizure, except at the time, she didn’t know what was happening. All of a sudden Joe became so enraged. Nothing in particular set him off. He just start yelling and screaming like a mad man. And, strong! Why, he gained what seemed to be at least three times his normal strength--almost like the Incredible Hulk. He picked up the kitchen table and hurled it across the room. Christa tried to calm him down, but it seemed the more she talked, the more enraged he became. He picked Christa up and was ready to throw her like a football when all of a sudden, he managed to snap out of it, put Christa back down and became so weak, he could barely stay standing. He was so weak, he couldn’t even take a drink of water.
Christa took Joe to the emergency room after the first episode, and they hospitalized him for observation. The doctors determined what Christa had witnessed was a convulsion or seizure of some sort. They didn’t know what precipitated it, but they thought it might have something to do with the concussion he sustained when he got hit playing football.
Joe continued to have these seizures on and off for years. Once at Stellar Motors, he became so strong during one of his seizures that he bent a cast-iron semi brake drum with his bare hands, and another time, he punched his fist into the back bumper of a car, placing a dent at least 1-inch deep.
Joe saw doctors on more than one occasion to see why he kept having the seizures or if anything could be done to stop them, but the doctors didn’t seem to have an answer or a solution for him. Those around Joe had learned that when he would have one of them, they needed to stay perfectly still and quiet so as not to provoke him more. And, once his seizure had subsided, they knew that Joe would most likely collapse and sleep for the remainder of the day.
FACTS: Joe did have these types of seizures and doctors attributed them to his concussion that he received while playing football for Winona State University.
I find it interesting that Joe had these rare seizures after suffering his concussion at Winona State. The thought has occurred to me that perhaps Joe could be suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). More on this in upcoming blogs.
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