PLEASE HELP I AM A WRECK

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My 9 yr old son had a sleep deprived eeg on monday and they called me this afternoon to tell me that the eeg was abnormal in the frontal lobe and some seizure like activity. They told me to get him a physical to make sure he can be sedated then they would schedule him a MRI and get back to me with the schedule. I am very worried, what does this all mean.?????????????????

Comments

Re: PLEASE HELP I AM A WRECK

Submitted by ekoorb on Fri, 2007-03-09 - 20:15

What brought you to the EEG? Was your son having seizures? The docs do the MRI to rule out any physical abnormalities. After my daugther's EEG, we followed up with a MRI. Although her EEG showed some slowing and abnormal activity, her MRI was normal. She has a childhood form of E. I know you are very worried--- I am assuming you are new to the possibility of Epilepsy. The beginning can be very frightening. Please write back. Take care.

Re: Re: PLEASE HELP I AM A WRECK

Submitted by MZMITCH on Sat, 2007-03-10 - 18:25

well actually my son has had numerous problems in schools, and he is on focalin for adhd and has tics so he is on clonedien.the dr wanted to do a sleep deprived eeg to make sure there were no other problems. So when we went they called us 3 days later to tell us he had abnormalites in the front lobal part of the brain and seisure like activity and ordered an MRI. we have never seen him actually have a seisure, just tics. we really werent expecting to hear anything and it was just a shock. I am now wanting to know what all this means, and what happens next. thank you for your quick response.

As to what it all means, the

Submitted by ekoorb on Sun, 2007-03-11 - 00:17

As to what it all means, the diagnosis is a process. If they saw seizure like activity in the EEG, they now will investigate as to whether he is actually having some type of seizures. It sounds as if you have not ever noticed any seizure activity. Even a slight staring of for a few seconds can be a type of seizure (absence). Sometimes kids who have absence seizures have difficulty in school because they are loosing time. I assume you are already seeing a neurologist. I know the MRI sounds scary but they do that to rule out any sort of growths or physical abnormalities. Just because they are sending him for the MRI does NOT mean they expect to find something. The MRI is an additional tool to help the docs come up with a diagnosis. They will try to look at the test results, along with anything observations you have of your childs behavior etc., to determine if he has epilepsy (I am assuming they will look into that since you mentioned the test was consistent with seizures) or if there is some other explanation for the EEG results. I know that Epilepsy is a tough word to swallow. Epilepsy is defined as having two or more seizures. Not ever person who has it is treated with meds because each case is different (there is a thread in this web site listing all the types of E-- use the search engine to the left)and some forms can be outgrown. Also, not every person with similiar EEG results has E. There are neurologists who are Epilepsy specialists where all they do all day long is see patients with E. There are specifically pediatric E specialists and I highly recommend finding one if the test seem to indicate seizures. My daughter is 6 and was diagnosed with Benign Occipital Childhood Epilepsy a little over a year ago. It has been a very tough year but you eventually get your feet on the ground. Who knows-- with your son, it may not even be E but that is what they will have to determine. You should type in searches in this web site (ie abnormalities in the frontal lobe) because there may be stuff you can learn that may or not relate to your son. There may be activity that you never really thought significant that may be relevant to a diagnosis and important to share with the doc. Please write back and stay strong.