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Daughter suffers migraines
Wed, 11/03/2004 - 10:49My daughter is 10 yrs old and suffers from "a tonic clonic seizures". Approximately a year or so ago she started having headaches that quickly turned into migraines now associated with an upset stomach. We've had testing done to rule out the usual, brain tumor etc... These migraines are ruling her life not to mention the problems she is now encountering in school... Is anyone else having these same issues.
Also, I always thought my daughter was just a very busy child into several things at once. Now i'm wondering if all of these issues aren't related to the epilepsy itself... Her grades have "drastically" declined this past year. She's gone from an A,B, student to having 3 F's on her report card. Spelling, reading, and math are just absolutely difficult for her.... She too has memory problems as well.
I'm not sure how much of this is related to the epilepsy or this is just her. Can someone please help me out here. I feel horrible that I've punished her for the wrong reasons if she has no control over the above. FYI, she is taking Depakote and recently within the past week and half started on a new drug called Lamictal. She also takes Amidrine for the migraines.
RE: Daughter suffers migraines
Submitted by Clunk1234567 on Wed, 2004-11-03 - 07:17
My heart goes out to you, being a mother of a child most be worrying in the extreme, terriying even. Now i have been on Lamictal for a couple of years and have noticed that with spelling i have a problem of things. I can spell but when i write down the words i find the odd letter missing or added, if i write at a slower pace there is no proble, it's the same with maths. Its as though i'm writing faster than my brain can cope with. Try an experiment, get your daught to spell the words to you verbaly one day. get your daughter to write it down a few days later. It will tell you if she has the same problem as me with this drug. One other thing, The drug causes a rise in irritability. In a child it can cause a tremendous rise in tantrums. If this happens, please remember that it isn't her, it's the drug. Your daughter takes anti epilepsy drugs, and the drug is not only controled by the seizure, but the body mass. Most drugs can build up in the body. As your little girl gets bigger, the dosage will be increased to match the body mass, the drug plays a game off catch up with the body mass and the epilepsy while she grows. As the body can store the drug there will be more than a few blood tests in your daughters life. There is one other thing, Time your daughters seizures, if it goes beyond three or four minutes call the paramedics, there is a thing called status elepticus, that is a state of continual epilepsy which is dangerous. Having said that, a hell of a lot of people with epilepsy never experience it. One of the problem of epilepsy is the lack of control of muscles, your daughter may have a bowl or bladder release release. One thing about school, kids can be cruel, not all, just some. Please keep an eye on any bullying that may occur. eighty percent of all seizures are stopped, so things are in our favour. There is a type of epilepsy called febrile epilepsy, and kids normaly grow out of it with age. One thing you must do, that is join a self help group, you'll probably get the local one from your neurologist. They can be a gold mine for you, other mothers, some with many years of experience with thier children will be there, some with the same type of epilepsy as your girl. One of the things i found is forgetfulness, i start one thing do something else, forget the first thing, then remember the first, and forget the second, in other words i do many thing at once. a siezures cause memory loss, but normally mild, the drugs always do. One thing you will notice in this forum, there is the odd person who have decided to reduce or stop their kids drugs, don't you dare do that, when the hospital or doctor does it it is in a controlled way, backed up by many years of experience, not forgetting the scans, blood tests, eeg's. reducing a drug in an uncontrolled way lowers the threshold for going status elepticus, it can be a killer. Anyone who does that to another person deserve a slap.
I have tried to give you the facts of epilepsy because You have a need to know, and will want to know. This forum has a wealth of experience and some off the most helpful people around, post and you'll get a response, i for one will answer all your post.
My heart goes out to you, being a mother of a child most be worrying in the extreme, terriying even. Now i have been on Lamictal for a couple of years and have noticed that with spelling i have a problem of things. I can spell but when i write down the words i find the odd letter missing or added, if i write at a slower pace there is no proble, it's the same with maths. Its as though i'm writing faster than my brain can cope with. Try an experiment, get your daught to spell the words to you verbaly one day. get your daughter to write it down a few days later. It will tell you if she has the same problem as me with this drug. One other thing, The drug causes a rise in irritability. In a child it can cause a tremendous rise in tantrums. If this happens, please remember that it isn't her, it's the drug. Your daughter takes anti epilepsy drugs, and the drug is not only controled by the seizure, but the body mass. Most drugs can build up in the body. As your little girl gets bigger, the dosage will be increased to match the body mass, the drug plays a game off catch up with the body mass and the epilepsy while she grows. As the body can store the drug there will be more than a few blood tests in your daughters life. There is one other thing, Time your daughters seizures, if it goes beyond three or four minutes call the paramedics, there is a thing called status elepticus, that is a state of continual epilepsy which is dangerous. Having said that, a hell of a lot of people with epilepsy never experience it. One of the problem of epilepsy is the lack of control of muscles, your daughter may have a bowl or bladder release release. One thing about school, kids can be cruel, not all, just some. Please keep an eye on any bullying that may occur. eighty percent of all seizures are stopped, so things are in our favour. There is a type of epilepsy called febrile epilepsy, and kids normaly grow out of it with age. One thing you must do, that is join a self help group, you'll probably get the local one from your neurologist. They can be a gold mine for you, other mothers, some with many years of experience with thier children will be there, some with the same type of epilepsy as your girl. One of the things i found is forgetfulness, i start one thing do something else, forget the first thing, then remember the first, and forget the second, in other words i do many thing at once. a siezures cause memory loss, but normally mild, the drugs always do. One thing you will notice in this forum, there is the odd person who have decided to reduce or stop their kids drugs, don't you dare do that, when the hospital or doctor does it it is in a controlled way, backed up by many years of experience, not forgetting the scans, blood tests, eeg's. reducing a drug in an uncontrolled way lowers the threshold for going status elepticus, it can be a killer. Anyone who does that to another person deserve a slap.
I have tried to give you the facts of epilepsy because You have a need to know, and will want to know. This forum has a wealth of experience and some off the most helpful people around, post and you'll get a response, i for one will answer all your post.