Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

Hi Michael I am sorry that I really don't have any insites into JME myself. I don't have that type of Epilepsy. But there is some really great info on the main page about JME. www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_juvenilemyoclonic.html here are a couple more I found on the web for you to look at http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic416.htm http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/juvenile.html I hope it helps, Dayna

Mom of 16 yr old boy diagnosed with JME in Nov 2005. Michael, I understand your situation. How old is your son? Mine is 16 and fell 3 times in the shower one morning before school before having a tonic clonic (grand mal) seizure after my husband pulled him out. The falls were the result of the myoclonic jerks which were so strong they knocked his legs out from under him. After the first fall he said that he was very tired while in the shower and he thought that was why he fell. We had no family history. We got him into a pediatric neurologist who did an eeg and confirmed JME. He has been on Depakote ER since Thanksgiving. Fatigue/exhaustion has been on ongoing issue but has gotten better overall. Part of that problem was that the Dr. ramped him up on the meds within 4 days instead of 3 months so he had a difficult adjustment period. He has not had any jerks or seizures since being on the medication. He is also very active -- a distance runner -- which is exhausting by itself, often running 9 miles/day. He has mentioned having some memory/concentration problems which seem to be getting a bit better. His school work suffered but his slowly improving. He did miss a lot of school initially because of being exhausted. I have read that oftentimes people have the "twitches" for some time before actually having a seizure. Onset of JME is typically between 12 and 20 years old. If it is JME the eeg should be definitive as to the seizure activity. Good luck to you both.