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Can Flying Trigger Seizures? My 3 year old's first seizure.
Sun, 04/05/2015 - 23:34Good Evening,
I have a 3.5 year old son. The last year or so we have flown 4 times. Each time, upon arriving at our new destination, he has (the day of arrival or the following morning) gotten really tired and taken a long 3 hour nap (highly unlike him) and thrown up. What is weird is that he doesn't throw up or nap after we fly back home -- he also doesn't seem to be in any distress emotionally around going to new places. For instance, when we drive someplace new, no naps, no throwing up. Even arriving via plane: smiling and happy until all of sudden he is laid low.
Yesterday rather than throwing up, he had a seizure, a bad one for about 12 minutes that was brought under control via valium delivered by EMTs who arrived after we called 911.
This happened roughly 20 hours after flying...the morning after. He had a cold when we flew, but not a fever. We gave him dramamine for the first time thinking it might help with what we perceived to be motion sickness (although admittedly he doesn't seem to ever get sick from car rides).
His MRI came back fine, his bloodwork came back fine, X-rays came back fine and he didn't have a temperature in the ambulance so this does not appear to be a fever spike seizure.
All of that said, everyone at the hospital basically waived off our stories of travel bringing him low, stating that it was unrelated to the seizure. This was at the country's top children's hospital, but I have to say, my intuition as a parent still has the two linked.
I am curious about altitude being a general culprit in adversely effecting my child, and a potential seizure trigger. I am curious about overstimulation being a general cuprit in adversely effecting my child and a potential seizure trigger. Also very humble about the value of my intuition here given my inexperience.
For instance can a "trigger" (or root cause) even happen 20 hours prior to a seizure?
New to all of this and kind of stumbling around for answers before potentially putting him on a plane back home in 4 days. Any thoughts or advice most welcome.