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3 yr old with Myoclonic seizures. Anyone else?
Thu, 10/19/2006 - 18:04Topic: Parents & Caregivers
Hello, just trying to figure this website and my son out. I have a 3 year old with Myoclonic seizures and would love to talk to someone else experiencing this. Thank you
Comments
Re: 3 yr old with Myoclonic seizures. Anyone else?
Submitted by Shannah Scott on Mon, 2006-11-06 - 22:48
Hello, I would like to respond to your comments on 10/19/06 regarding your 3 year old with Myoclonic seizures. My son has this type along with several other types of seizures. He is now 23 but started having seizures at 3 1/2 months old. When he was younger we counted over 100 of these seizures in a day. After so many years of not knowing what caused him to have seizures we found out two years ago what the doctors now think (98% sure) was the cause of his seizure disorder. Toxoplasmosis - this is the parasite that a mother can get from cat feces (undercooked meat and unclean vegatables also) when she is pregnant. Congenital Toxoplasmosis. I did not have a cat when I was pregnant. The parasite is transmited to the fetus from the mother. The mother can go without having any symptoms or flu like symptoms. The reason that this was not detected in my son sooner is because it does not show up until the 2nd or 3rd decade of life through an eye exam. Lesions on eyes. I just want to spread the word about this. I don't think that we a warned about the true dangers of this. I don't know if there is a test that can be given to check if mother or child has toxoplasmosis. I do know that if it is detected treatment can start early so that damage is not so severe. Good luck to you. God has blessed our family through our son. Every day is a new challenge. He keeps life interesting to say the least! Look for and appreciate the little things this special gifts give us every day.
Re: 3 yr old with Myoclonic seizures. Anyone else?
Submitted by Essie on Thu, 2006-11-09 - 09:53
Hi there
I spoke to you in the chat room, and just wanted to comment to all the posts here. As I told you, my son too has myoclonic seizures. As well as drop attacks and abcenses (all seizure types of his Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy). Both the mycolonic and atonic is under control with lamictal. The abcenses mostly as well, he only gets a few every now and then these days. It's been a hard 4 months in our life, since he's been diagnosed. Hang in there!
To answer the post on the toxoplasmosis. I know about it. I'm really sorry to hear about how it affected your son, Shannah. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not in the USA (I'm in South Africa), but here you can test for toxoplasmosis. As I understand it, the blood test also shows if you have had it previously in your life, since one exposure usually gives you life-time protection against it. There is a vaccination as well that women can get if you test negative. So before pregnancy you may ask to recieve this. Stats seem to show that up to 80% of people have had it somewhere in there childhood by playing in the garden (where cats have been). But it truly is dangerous for the pregnant women, and she should wear gloves when working with cats, in the garden, raw meat and raw vegatables. Something we obviously cannot always do, for example eating salads and meat at a restaurant! I agree with you that there's not enough information about this seemingly innocent parasite, and I wish they will make blood tests routinely for people wanting to get pregnant, like the rubella test.
Good luck to you all. Take care of those precious children. I hope they only bring love and happiness to you all.
Essie (mom to Nian (5) and Meonie (3))
Re: Re: Re: Re: 3 yr old with Myoclonic seizures. Anyone else?
Submitted by DJsMom on Sat, 2006-10-28 - 16:41
Hi there - My 8 year old son had myoclonic seizures for several years - 5 to 10 a day. They were caused by the Tegretol that he took for his epilepsy. You need to be aware that as your son's brain grows & changes, his seizure type and/or frequency may change also. Plus, the medications can sometimes CAUSE changes in the seizures also. My son had several small tonic clonic seizures starting when he was 20 months old. After being diagnosed, he was put on Tegretol & had no seizures for about a year, then started having myoclonics. At that point I did not even know there were different types of seizures, much less that the medication could cause them! He tried several additional seizure drugs which never helped for long and they were always ADDED to the Tegretol. The myoclonics did not stop until he was taken off the Tegretol after 5 years. Also, he was tried on Trileptal for a while and that caused him to have drop seizures. He took that for 6 weeks, then was promptly taken off it after he broke his nose from falling for the umpteenth time during that perioud. Unfortunately, since then he has had several more drop seizures (which can cause very serious injuries)- he had never had them before the Trileptal. Of course, all drugs work differently on each child. Just watch your child closely for changes, keep doctor informed, and read as much as you can! Good luck to you and your son.