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9 month old - recovery period after seizure?

Sat, 07/07/2007 - 23:34
My 9 1/2 month old daughter is in the hospital as I write after having her third seizure. I'm concerned about the amount of time it is taking her to recover and become fully alert since the seizure occurred. She had a seizure yesterday afternoon around 3:00p.m. My wife gave her a dose of Diastat which we were given in case of a breakthrough seizure (administered rectally) but the seizure continued for another 10 minutes so she called for an ambulance. At the hospital, she was given additional medication (Ativan) to stop the seizure. She was having trouble breathing so the doctors intubated her and the breathing tube was taken out after about 6-7 hours. She has been receiving an IV dose of Phenobarbital in the hospital. Her first seizure occurred at 5 months old and a second at 7 months. She started out taking Phenobarbital and, after the second seizure, was switched to Topamax. We transitioned her from the Pheno to Topamax slowly and she began taking the Topamax only about 3 weeks ago. Her seizures start with her blinking her eyes and then one side of her body starts twitching every few seconds and her body goes limp. The doctors are telling me she is recovering well and that they want to keep her one more night before discharging her to make sure she is fully alert and behaving like her normal self. She is so lethargic and just "out of it" that it is really hard to see her like this. When I was with her this afternoon, she kept trying to roll over or sit up but she was too weak. She was moaning and crying and then falling asleep for brief periods of time. Has anyone else been through this with a child of the same age? How worried should I be about how slowly she is bouncing back? Thanks. Joe

Comments

Re: 9 month old - recovery period after seizure?

Submitted by peppermintpatty on Sun, 2007-07-08 - 02:17
Joe, It sometimes takes a day or even two days to really get back to being "normal" for us big adults.I have no wee one but it has to be one of the scariest things to watch and see and to wait till she is up and back to her norm. think of the meds she was given to stop the siezures and the siezure it self can wipe ya out too. so I wouldn't worry about it exspecially since the doctors are saying she is ok.my prayers are with you and yours. Peppermintpatti

Re: Re: 9 month old - recovery period after seizure?

Submitted by krissy parra on Sun, 2007-07-08 - 18:12
joe, my 15 month old has complex partial seizures since she was 4 weeks old, we always have to give her diastat to break the seizure sometimes it has taken up to an hour to break, it usually then takes another full day for her to bounce back to herself, the day after a seizure she is so tired, so it does take almost 2 days to get back to normal. my thoughts are with you and your family. krissy

Re: Re: Re: 9 month old - recovery period after seizure?

Submitted by brooklynjoe on Sun, 2007-07-08 - 21:11
Thanks for your responses and support. My daughter came home a few hours ago and is alert but still not quite herself - still waiting for her smile and laugh to fully return but grateful she's doing better. She's back on Topamax and Pheno for now. We have an appointment with the neurologist on Wednesday to discuss next steps.

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