13 replies to this topic

[juli]

My husband is a c4c5 quad. Its almost been a year since his accident. There are alot of things that worry me and scare me but this is one of the worst. His sleep patterns have really changed. Now I know SCI change and alter almost everything in the body and mind but I am really worried. First he doesnt sleep well at all, he is either screaming, cussing, or crying. Most of the time he makes no sense. But the really scarey part is he chews on his hands to the point of damage. He has pulled of finger nails and bit skin till it bruises or bleeds. Not just small areas but large ones. I have tried wrapping them but he pulls it off on his sleep or bits through the wrapping. I have tried elbow splints to keep his arms straight but he totally freaks out. Now this is all in his sleep, he doesnt remember any of it the next morning. I am beside myself and I dont know what to do.Has anyone else ever heard of this? Please help

Edited by juli, 28 May 2011 - 12:46 PM.

[Tetracyclone]

I don't know, Juli, but this sounds terrible. Someone will know something...

[andypandy17]

It does sound awful, have you spoken to his GP about it. Has he had counselling for the huge change in lifestyle ?
I am NO expert but wonder if it is stress related Juli ?

Very best wishes, hope you get some help for your hubby

Andy

[Dillon]

Hi,

I was wondering whether he had this kind of behavior before his accident or injury. If not, these kind of sleeping behaviors seem more psychological than anything to do with the spinal cord injury, unless, he has also been mentally impaired from the accident.

My, nonexpert, suggestion would be to try to find a sleep study clinic. I've seen people treated for somewhat similar behavior at university labs on some television show.

Ask your doctor or contact your local university to see if they could recommend something. Good luck!

[Smileyblue]

This must be awfully frightening for you both!

I agree with what has been said above, that it could be stress related, possibly from the injury.. Also, if he suffered a Brain Injury (TBI) this could cause these behaviours.. Personally, I was a wreck for long after my accident due to the TBI.. I had no clue what I was doing or saying..

These are both problems that should be investigated fully as soon as possible.. The sooner it is identified, the sooner you can both get to moving on..

Best wishes,
Renée

[sh1wn]

Wow, thats gotta not be fun. I would think it might be TBI. Does he take anything to help him sleep? I have heard of people sleep walking or even driving and not remembering it on some sleep drugs mostly ambien. You should let his doctor know whats going on as soon as you can.
I hope you guys get it figured out soon.

[Simba]

The fact that he is doing it in his sleep (sub-consciously) in my opnion must mean it is more likely to be based on something going on medically. If he is screaming he must be in agony - is he on any pain medication as the self-harm in sleep sounds dangerous and he may need some medication to take the edge off it.

In my experience it doesn't really fit with what I know about TBI - it can cause some behavioural changes but the person will only not remember if they have incurred some sort of a blow to the head usually, however seen as it is a recent injury I wouldn't exclude it as a possible factor. If it happens at night it may just be due to nerves wreaking havoc (pain) and stress or anxiety. I would recommend discussing this with his doctor.

Best of luck in getting this sorted out for both of you and hope this situation will improve.

[juli]

Simba, on 29 May 2011 - 01:19 AM, said:

The fact that he is doing it in his sleep (sub-consciously) in my opnion must mean it is more likely to be based on something going on medically. If he is screaming he must be in agony - is he on any pain medication as the self-harm in sleep sounds dangerous and he may need some medication to take the edge off it.

In my experience it doesn't really fit with what I know about TBI - it can cause some behavioural changes but the person will only not remember if they have incurred some sort of a blow to the head usually, however seen as it is a recent injury I wouldn't exclude it as a possible factor. If it happens at night it may just be due to nerves wreaking havoc (pain) and stress or anxiety. I would recommend discussing this with his doctor.

Best of luck in getting this sorted out for both of you and hope this situation will improve.

Thank you all for responding. I am so new to all this. We have both talked to several Drs. about it and they have no answers but that didnt surprise me because I get much more info from this site than the medical field. He did have a brain bleed at the time of his accident, but the Drs. said it was small enough that it would take care of its self. His memory awake and asleep is horrible. I dont know if he suffered some kinda brain damage or what. Could he possibly be reliving his accident even though he doesnt remember it. I dont know but if any of you are praying people, please keep us in your prayers. Thanks to all!!

[guido]

He needs to relax mentally, emotionally and physically. There are plenty of good people who can help this happen.


http://www.stat.org.uk/ - use this as a starting point.


If you try someone and you don't like them, don't exclude the possibility of sorting this, look for another person.


If you start searching, you will find someone you like and trust and who makes a difference.


Things will start to resolve themselves.


People underestimate the emotional trauma of this physical one, and it can be sorted without strong meds.


I say this from experience.

[mcwriter]

My husband had a brain injury years ago and does a lot of weird things in his sleep, though not as intense as yours. Trauma to the brain even the less severe can cause a "re-wiring" to occur, so don't rule out the possibility that this might have something to do with his head injury. It is possible that his brain is reacting to something else going on and just going about it in an unexpected way.

The fact that he chews his fingers and freaks out if you put splints on him, tells me that he is experiencing extremely harsh sensations in his hands during sleep, possible nerve pain which would account for him trying to get at it by pulling nails off and biting. People will do this in a wakeful state when they cannot get to the source of a pain or annoying sensation that lies deep under the skin.

No memory of this when he is awake means he is not experiencing this same sensation while awake. The advice for a sleep study is good and can help you to rule out other things. Take note of his meds and check out the possible side effects. It is entirely possible that he is undergoing a physiological change with sleep that could be working in combination with the effects of even just one of his meds.

The point is, that to discover what is going on you need to try to isolate each thing individually to examine if it is a possible cause, and this is difficult to do. Try to take into account any patterns of what you do for him or what he does before this sleep activity occurs.

How is his body position affected before and during sleep when the hand activity occurs? Is he placing extra strain on his neck at all during the chewing phase? There is also the possibility that he is exacerbating something in the nerves when asleep by doing something he does not normally do when he is awake.

Have you ever thought about boxing gloves taped at the wrists and around the thumb? They would be hard to get off even with his teeth if you use the right tape.

As for the memory thing, I've got an idea that it comes with the territory. My husband does this, not consistently, but enough that it is noticeable to me. For now just observe closely for patterns in behavior both awake and asleep, check your routines you do with him and his routines as he goes to sleep and bring up everything to his doctor(s), even time of day he takes the meds. I am not convinced this is just stress or dreaming about his trauma. I really feel like there is some physiological cause, so don't let the medical people brush you off. If they want to try new meds, watch carefully and note what happens.

Don't rule out something going on with his brain. It is possible that before the brain bleed he reacted one way to something and now it is a different way. Brains are very tricky and only you can describe specifically to his doctor what the differences are in his patterns of behavior. Has he had a CAT scan post accident?

[pinkcloud]

yeap

our unconcious does not sleep and out comes things we dont address when we we are awake.

its a scientific fact - i believe - that if we dont dream we go mad.

like taking lsd...our nightmares can catch up with us when we try to ecape life by sleeping. and we cant contol the things we try to run and hide from....i never knew this til recently and am glad i neve tried it.

Plus we move in sleep ways we wuldnt when awake.

I dont remember me nightmares/sleep walking/talking rubbbish.

I woke one night and bit into a lyrica tablet, for some reason i left it on the side..it had a huge bite mark in it..i have found a few tablets i do this with..which is rather scary so i have got rid of all tablets i dont use.

now there were 3 lyrica tablets 150mg ones, i would have overdosed... i remember nothing. Also the meds play a big part on our sleep.

i have took measures so getting tablets in sleep dont happen.

i've been told i look wide awake when i sleep walk/talk.

I dont remember nothing so its not traumatic for me..please be awre if ya husband dont remember nothing, i guess he wont be upet by this.

maybe definaty speak to your family doctor, theres warning labels on certain drugs of behaviour changes...i am not sure if this means when we are asleep but i think it must do.

Best wishes and thanks for sharing

Edited by pinkcloud, 23 July 2011 - 10:56 PM.

[mcwriter]

My husband wanted to try an anti-depressant once and it is supposed to be increased slowly until you get to the correct dosage for you.

Let's just say we went to check on him and he was gone! He had left the house and we finally found him in the park down the street. My son ran up to him and my husband told him, "Hey, ya wanna jog with me?" and took a few more steps hobbling with his cane and promptly fell on the ground.
To this day he does not remember doing this.

The doctor made a mistake on an increase and accidently doubled the next step up. It was the one time we weren't paying attention. Needless to say he never wants to take Effexor or anything like it ever again.

[mike13]

Being a Incomplete SCI, seriously record it and have him watch it. It may take more than one time of recording it to take affect.
I believe these strange little things we aquire after SCI are in our brain or in the back, if we see what we are doing when we (Lose Control).
Show him the recordings for mayby a week, and that should start another change. Hopefully for the better.

Hope this helps.

[wheeliebear75]

Yes the BLEED may have stopped on it's own.....but often all that MEANS is = we'd do more damage getting to the bleeder than it will just letting nature slowly stop. This however does NOT necessarily mean that there was not any damage to the brain in that area. It sounds as though these problems/disturbances he's having could be #1 an undiagnosed (or they just didn't make much mention of it) TBI, #2 physical pain that isn't being 100% relieved causing these odd chewing of his hands & screaming out, or #3 a manifestation of the emotional pain from his physical accident. I don't know which one it is but the only ones who CAN tell you are going to be the variety that have PHD or MD after their names. I wish you all the best & keep us posted one way or the other.