New here. Thought my son was having absence seizures, but maybe it's more?

Don't know if this is the place to start, but here it goes.

My name is Beth. I have two children, Kyle (8) and Katie (6 on 12/31). About a year ago, my husband and I started noticing that Kyle would "zone out" during normal conversation. It wasn't that he was distracted or daydreaming or just not listening. It was like he left us for about 10 seconds. When he'd come back, he didn't even know what had happened or why his dad and I were yelling his name.

My daughter had an undiagnosed hearing loss that led to a speech delay, so my first thought was that Kyle had a hearing problem. I took him to the audiologist in February and he passed all hearing tests with flying colors. So then I assumed that he just wasn't paying attention to us. I can't remember the frequency of episodes throughout the spring, but I know he had them. He plays baseball and when my daughter and I would meet my husband at the ballpark, he'd tell me that Kyle was in his own little world that day.

I intended to bring it up at his ped check-up in the summer, but for some reason, the incidents didn't seem so plentiful then. Maybe he was having them and we weren't noticing them because the summer is low-key around here. Maybe he wasn't having them as much because he wasn't as tired as usual (he tends to have them in the afternoon/evenings). So I didn't say anything to the ped.

When school started this year, he started having a lot of them. My mother-in-law picks the kids up from school in the afternoons and she noticed him having two or three most afternoons while she was working with him on his homework. When I went for a report card conference two weeks ago, I mentioned them to his teacher. She said that she hadn't noticed them, but that it sounded to her like a petit mal seizure.

I'm not this teacher's biggest fan, so I just filed this away. That weekend, though, Kyle had several episodes, so I Googled 'petit mal seizures.' That led me to 'absence seizures.' All of this sounded exactly like what was happening to Kyle.

I called the ped and he had an EEG yesterday. He was sleep-deprived, and had one episode before the test began. During the sleeping part of the test, I know he had at least one that I could see (the room was dark and I really couldn't see him that well at first). He makes these chewing/smacking movements with his mouth when he has them and that's what I noticed. Then they did the hyperventilation part of the EEG. Not only did he have an absence seizure, but he also had what I would call a classic seizure -- his back started arching and his hands were shaking.

We have at least two days before we get the results of the EEG. I'm fairly certain that our pediatrician will refer us to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, since there are no pediatric neurologists in our area.

My question is, from what y'all know, does the more violent, convulsive nature of the seizure during the hyperventilation part possibly mean that Kyle has more than just absence seizures?

Just for more background, he is a healthy kid. He rarely gets sick -- during the summer, he usually gets an ear infection from all the swimming he does. He makes all As in school and is in the gifted and talented class. His behavior is good. He has never had any major head trauma that I know of. He is a boy, though, and plays outside all weekend long. But I believe that if he were ever hurt that badly, I would know about it. He doesn't complain of headaches, although he told the tech yesterday that he does get them. His birth was normal and he was full-term. To my husband's and my knowledge, no one in our families have had any sort of epilepsy or seizures on a regular basis.

This is very scary, as I'm sure y'all know. Any experiences or advice is much appreciated!!