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Possible absence seizures in 12-year-old
Sat, 04/22/2017 - 19:30Topic: Parents & Caregivers
Hello. I'm very concerned and found this site. I have a 12-year old son. Over the past maybe 3-4 months, we've noticed a few occasions (maybe 4-5, although I'm not sure), in which he would suddenly zone completely out for maybe 5-10 seconds. He could be in the middle of telling a story, then suddenly stop and look zoned out, and then he'd come out of it and often say, "wait, what?" It's possible it could have happened more frequently, but we haven't personally observed it.
At first we thought he was just distracted or overtired. He has struggled with insomnia for years. He's is an over-achiever, super concerned with academics, and tends to be a worrier. No extreme anxiety, but he tends to have stuff on his mind. The last couple of times, however, we started wondering. And this morning I found out that one of his teachers had observed such an incident.
So of course I start researching, and I came across "childhood absence epilepsy" or "childhood absence seizures." Panic. Then I come across "juvenile absence epilepsy" and "juvenile myoclonic epilepsy," which appear to be lifelong and would mean physical seizures.
He already has a neurologist, who we met years ago to help with his pretty nasty insomnia. I'll call her first thing Monday morning. But holy heck I am SCARED! I'm worried about him emotionally. He's already an anxious kid. I'm worried about him physically (skiing, swimming, someday driving). I'm worried about his long-term life.
I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, but damn. These things sure do look like absence seizures.
A bit of extra info. As a young toddler and sometimes as a younger child, he'd occasionally get a tic. For example, he'd go through a period when he'd blink a lot. Noticeably so.
Anyway, I'm just looking for advice, thoughts, anything.
Thank you!
Comments
Ain't that the truth.
Submitted by mereloaded on Wed, 2017-04-26 - 20:07
Ain't that the truth. Epilepsy is perhaps one thing that no one can understand, control, get ahead or prepare for. It is what it is, whenever and no one can predict or tell you why, when next, future etc.
JME is different. My son has
Submitted by mereloaded on Wed, 2017-04-26 - 20:07
JME is different. My son has that. It has physical evidence of seizures with jerks, ticks that occasionally turn into tonic clinic seizures. That sounds nothing like what you describe.Yes, zoning out and becoming unresponsive while zone out, even if conscious, it a sign of Epilepsy, specifically Absense seizures, also called petit Mal. If your child has other symptoms such as migraines and imnsonia, those could be also epilepsy related. A lot of people get misdiagnosed or their initial symptoms are mild at the beginning and are often confused for other stuff. My son's symptoms didn't become evident until he was 15 years old when he had an episode of myoclonus and then a TC six weeks later. But before that he had random sudden dizziness and nausea, which no one could explain... it was epileosy all along.
JME is different. My son has
Submitted by mereloaded on Wed, 2017-04-26 - 20:00
JME is different. My son has that. It has physical evidence of seizures with jerks, ticks that occasionally turn into tonic clinic seizures. That sounds nothing like what you describe.Yes, zoning out and becoming unresponsive while zone out, even if conscious, it a sign of Epilepsy, specifically Absense seizures, also called petit Mal. If your child has other symptoms such as migraines and imnsonia, those could be also epilepsy related. A lot of people get misdiagnosed or their initial symptoms are mild at the beginning and are often confused for other stuff. My son's symptoms didn't become evident until he was 15 years old when he had an episode of myoclonus and then a TC six weeks later. But before that he had random sudden dizziness and nausea, which no one could explain... it was epileosy all along.