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absence seizures
Sat, 03/17/2007 - 06:08Topic: Living With Epilepsy - Youth
How do we as parents keep our child feeling confident and secure with this terrible disorder? I feel so helpless and worry for him everyday. We don't want him to be labeled and we don't know how to deal with school. To date, we have never let the school know that he has an issue. Is this wrong as a parent when this is what our 9 year old wants? Please advise.
Comments
Re: absence seizures
Submitted by MindyRoy on Mon, 2007-03-26 - 10:28
Hi!
My 12 yr old daughter started having gran mal seizures in Aug 06. She was put on topamax right away. That seemed to help. From the first day of school, the school was notified about her condition. Just in case she would ever have one at school. The school was very welling to do what ever for her. She did very well. In Dec she had a video EEG. That showed that she was having small seizures through out the day. She was started on depakote, and weaned off topamax. The day after her last dosage of topamax, she started having gran mal seizures. She had one every day for 5 days. She also started having absense seizures. She was put back on topamax. the gran mal seizures stopped, but her absense ones got worse. The girls at school were getting mad at her, because they weren't aware she was having seizures. Her grades started to get bad. She was forgetting things she was learning. I talked to the school about getting her an aid that would sit with her, and help her get her school work done. The school was very helpful. Within a week she had an aid. So far it seems to be working. She was also put on zarontin to help with the absense seizures. That seems to be working also. I have not seen an absense seizure in 3 weeks. Her school work is getting better. She is still having problems, but at least she knows what she is doing. She is doing better.
thanks for letting me talk.
Mindy
Re: absence seizures
Submitted by Sophs64833 on Wed, 2007-03-28 - 17:14
How you react to it is your choice of feeling. No one can do anything about how you feel. Usually, just act like nothing happened unless he asks you. He won't be able to handle it all at this age he's at. As he gets older like I did, he'll somehow understand and deal with it his own way like I do mine. I've been having complex absence seizures since I was 10 and am now 18. But, you can't always hide it from people. I have tried doing that myself. If he has one at school, you will have to tell the school for his safety if they are to do anything that might be dangerous for him. If he has one around other kids, you can not be able to protect him from name calling and being labeled just as I was. it will be harder as he gets older. You know how terrible kids and teenagers who don't understand can be.
Re: Re: absence seizures
Submitted by haney307 on Mon, 2007-03-26 - 10:47
Did your daughter symtoms just start at 10 and what exactly were they? Is it specified as childhood or juvenile absence epilepsy? Our daughter is 4 and started having like 1 second seizures nearly a year ago. She has several daily but so far does not seem to cause any big problems.We are new to this site and are hoping to help and be helped. thanks