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Absence seizures in children
Fri, 05/10/2013 - 19:34Topic: Parents & Caregivers
my name is janelle and i noticed my daughter having these staring episodes, after a couple of months noticed they where getting more and more frequent, spoke to her teacher and was told that shes noticed her having them in class, it hit me so hard, confirmation its not just in my mind, shes had all the tests with the wires on her head and was confirmed she has peti mal with tendencys for grand mal, the meds are really taking there toll, my once happy energetic daughter is now tired and angry, its killing me to see her like this, im left wondering whats worse the seizures or this stranger that is now my middle daughter? any insight would be much appreciated i feel so lost.
Comments
Re: Absence seizures in children
Submitted by auz mum on Sat, 2013-05-11 - 16:20
hey cheers for your feedback,. I must admit she isnt tired as much any more but that seems to be replaced by her temper, its taking so long to adjust to and just kills me to see her this way, its changed the whole dynamics of the family as she is one of three daughters, we are all having to adjust, I do appreciate this wasnt how we had it planned, we have all made allowences for her but in the same breath I dont wont to let her get away with things that her sisters dont just because she flares up at the drop of a hat, Im still trying to mantain some kind of structure, she isnt like this all the time, just an hour or so after the meds shes cranky for about 2hours then gradually gets better, shes been on the meds since early april, thankyou for your words of encourgment, it is alot to get your head around but in saying that it could of been so much worse and for that i am truley greatful,
Re: Absence seizures in children
Submitted by janab on Wed, 2013-05-15 - 18:03
Hi Janelle. I also have an 8 year old daughter that was just diagnosed with epilepsy in March of this year. Out of the blue she had a tonic clonic seizure at school and subsequent testing showed that she was having lots of absence seizures (although we had never noticed her having one before that). She started taking just Keppra in mid-March and we added Zarontin to that about 3 weeks ago (as the Keppra alone wasn't stopping the absence seizures). So far she really hasn't had any side effects at all, except for a little tiredness initially that has since gone away. If the side effects don't improve soon, you should definitely talk to her neurologist about possibly switching medications.
Re: Absence seizures in children
Submitted by vivaciousgemini22 on Sat, 2013-05-11 - 13:08
I understand exactly what you are going through. I had to go to the EMU and found out that I had simple partial seizures and they don't seem to be getting any better as the days go on. I wonder how long has she been on the epilepsy medication? It might take a while for your daughter to get used to her medication and to find the right dosage to keep her seizures under control. Keep a positive mindset. She didn't ask fo this to happen to her. All you can do is be your daughter's role model and cheer her on to pursue bigger and better things in life.