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Decision to NOT medicate after 1 seizure/abnormal EEG

Tue, 06/10/2014 - 13:38

Please help..My 12 year old son (will be 13 in a couple weeks) had a tonic clonic seizure on May 9th.  It lasted less than 1 minute, he recovered very quickly.  He is an honors student, no behavioral issues, normal neuro workup/normal MRI.  His EEG was abnormal showing "Primary generalized" activity.  The Dr. wants to start Keppra. I am so overwhelmed.  The side effect of Keppra is "behavioral issues".  He will be going through puberty in the next year or so and puberty is such a fragile time in one's life.  I don't want to start this new med at the same time.  He has only had the one seizure and by definition epilepsy is 2 seizures.  I know his EEG is abnormal, but can people have abnormal EEG and NOT have seizures? Has anybody chosen to wait to medicate after 1st seizure with abnormal EEG? It is so hard because he is older that I see most kids when they present with their first seizure. And he has had no other seizures (absent/myclonic..) PLEASE HELP. I don't want to do the wrong thing.  Oh and he wants to be a Navy Seal and medicating him will prevent him from doing this.  If I don't medicate and he never has another seizure then he can join the military. I am struggeling with medicating and then asking myself "what if" he never would have had another seizure.  Thanks so much in advance

Comments

There is a small percentage

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2014-06-10 - 19:29
There is a small percentage of people who have abnormal EEGs and don't have epilepsy.  I don't know how much smaller that amount goes to if they also have had one seizure (the odds are stacked against you, ask the doctor the likelihood).  I know this is difficult. I think every parent takes a long time to deal with this but it is harder as one can't make seizures work around one's coping schedule.  I would not choose to wait with one seizure and an abnormal EEG.Keppra is a good drug for many people (they are not hanging around forums complaining) and it was suggested for my child's first drug (went with a different drug with few cognitive issues but my daughter has focal seizures).  Ask about the other options, I know they all sound scary.

He is an honors student, no

Submitted by just_joe on Thu, 2014-06-12 - 15:43
He is an honors student, no behavioral issues.  neuro workup/normal MRI. His EEG was abnormal showing "Primary generalized" activity. Basically your son has electrical impulses which are seizure activity. Now a short discripyion of a seizure is "An electrical impulse going off wrong in the brain causing a chain reaction."  SO with the 2 tests the neuros know that your son has epilepsy and they want to treat him. If you ask if a person can have abnormal activity on the EEG can they live without having a seizure. Well they might but then they might have seizures that could be much worse then the one he had.  Could he have been having seizures before the one you know about? Yes and many kids do. But epilepsy is not just a kids thing. If a person has a car accident and they have a blow to the head it can cause a hemmorage tothe brain. That hemmorage will cause scared brain tisue. That scar tissue can and does cause electrical impulses to go off wrong. You see I speak from experiance. A blow to the head when I was 6-8 did just as I postes. The only thing different is it was a fall and not a car accident. Oh and he wants to be a Navy Seal and medicating him will prevent him from doing this.   If I don't medicate and he never has another seizure then he can join the military. I am struggeling with medicating and then asking myself "what if" he never would have had another seizure.   The medication he has been prescribed is the best mediction I have ever used. It reduced the number of seizures I was having. It shortened the time in the seizure and the time to focus (get back to normal). What used to be 2-5 minutes in partial seizures and the 15-45 minutes to focus are now 2-5 seconds in the seizure and about the same to focus.  Please understand too that medications are to be taken as directed. If 2 times a day those should be 12 hours apart. any delay could cause breakthru seizures. Medications disolve in the body and the dosages are generally set to work for a certain time period so taking them 7am and 7pm is fine. Hiowever taking them 7am and 10pm the 3 hour difference could mean breakthur seizures on the next day. Been there Done that. I hope this helps and he gets seizure free which can and has happened. Joe

My son has been seizure free

Submitted by mereloaded on Sat, 2014-06-14 - 15:25
My son has been seizure free since taking Keppra. It has been 1 year and 4 months now, we are extremely grateful for his treatment success. He has absolutely no side effects under his current dosage. He just finished school with A's and B's and he runs in the HS track team. he is his usual self, same energy levels, mood, appetite etc. We have no issues. A lot of people get scared of medicating (I was) because I guess in my mind medicating was like "accepting" that he had epilepsy or a sign that I had given up looking for other explanations, so I know exactly where are you coming from, I did not wanted to stamp a label on my child , I know what you mean. But I was more scared of him having seizures and suffering the consequences of having one in school, missing days, people being scared of him or for him to hurt himself on a fall etc. So after careful consideration we start him on keppra. Totally worth it. he has his independence and we have peace of mind. He does everything that all others teens do without worries. Again, no side effects. Dosage had to be adjustedat the beginning (this is common) because on 750 twice a day he became uncharacteristically moody, but a quick call to the neuro fixed that, they lowered the dose and he came back to his normal self immediately and no issues ever since. 

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