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autism and now siezures?
Wed, 11/18/2009 - 02:34I emailed the website already but wanted to post too. I take care of an adult with moderate autism, who now we suspect is having siezures. So far ive seen her whole body drop completely, her head drop, seen her whole arms and/or legs stiffen up, seen her jump her arms or swing them up in the air randomly, seen rapid jerking, seen just also random jerking, eyes rolling back, whole body jerking, mouth drooling, staring off into space then jerking, and so much more(none are diagnosed yet, we called the neurologist, waiting to get back from them). Shes been drooling more and more, and is constantly tired, on top of that, lately shes been feeling sick to her stomach, losing her breath and having a hard time breathing, having mini faint spells, dizzy spells, she threw up the other day, and having lots of gas too. She is also having we assume siezures in the night, she woke up with her tongue swollen, bit, bloody, with a pillow half way down her throat, choking on her drool, etc. I honestly don't know what to do with her. Are these siezures? she is now having a lot of problems breathing, like catching her breath, out of breath, etc, are those related to siezures?
She is verbal to a point, has her days, but uses more sign to communicate, so I'm going mostly from what I see. I honestly think the whatever she is having started becoming more frequent, which i am sure at least 50 times a day, at least, due to severe head-banging(we have been working on her head-banging for years, she has got a lot better then she was as a child). She has been head-banging since she was a child, would that play a role in siezures too? I apologize if i seem sort of lost or dumb-founded, but she already has so many differculties with autism, that we never thought we add siezures to the mix, so now I'm at a loss for answers, please help?
JIM
Comments
Re: autism and now siezures?
Submitted by fastjim on Wed, 2009-11-18 - 13:17
thank you for replying, i am no doubt sure she has some sort or form of brain damage just from head-banging. Is it true she can get brain damage for the amount of siezures she is having? she had an open mri once but that was it, because she'll rip anything that goes around her head completely off, so its so hard. I'm glad to also hear you have an autistic son, so you can relate. Another thing we are worried about, any type of medication, she is allergic to, doesnt matter the medication or what its for. She gets extremely angry, uncontrollable mood swings, and either makes her even more tired or extremely hyper, so we dont know what will happen with the medications if and when she is diagnosed with siezures. Have you ever had a problem with that? if so how did you manage that?
She siezes a lot, and is constantly hitting her head, so if siezures cause brain damage, and her slamming her head into hard objects like marble sinks, i honestly dont know how she still functions, but to my amazement is still doing going strong. Is there something I can look for to tell if she does have brain damage? thank you.
JIM
thank you for replying, i am no doubt sure she has some sort or form of brain damage just from head-banging. Is it true she can get brain damage for the amount of siezures she is having? she had an open mri once but that was it, because she'll rip anything that goes around her head completely off, so its so hard. I'm glad to also hear you have an autistic son, so you can relate. Another thing we are worried about, any type of medication, she is allergic to, doesnt matter the medication or what its for. She gets extremely angry, uncontrollable mood swings, and either makes her even more tired or extremely hyper, so we dont know what will happen with the medications if and when she is diagnosed with siezures. Have you ever had a problem with that? if so how did you manage that?
She siezes a lot, and is constantly hitting her head, so if siezures cause brain damage, and her slamming her head into hard objects like marble sinks, i honestly dont know how she still functions, but to my amazement is still doing going strong. Is there something I can look for to tell if she does have brain damage? thank you.
JIM
Re: autism and now siezures?
Submitted by TashaCole on Wed, 2009-11-18 - 10:11
well those sound exactly like seizures, my son who is autistic has intractable seizures, he was diagnosed at the age of three that came with a fever, he is ten now but at the level of 3 years old. He also have dystonia a movement disorder so he takes a handful of pills daily to combat his seizures, behavior and movement disorder. call his or her neurologist or go through the emergency room that's how my son got into the neurology department. because the frequent that person suffers a seizures it can have a long lasting consequences, my son now has permanent brain damage from all his seizures that is what lead to his movement and behavior problem.