Epilepsy and behavioral issues

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I'm new here. My son who is 6, was diagnosed at 4 with generalized myoclonic seizures. He's been on various meds, currently onfi and depakote though still having some seizures. Hes very tired, has some cognitive issues, focus problems. My question is around an overall connection bw epilepsy and children's behavior. My son is a great kid, but no matter what we say, doesn't listen. It takes us raising our voice every time til he does (which we hate doing), but we've tried so much to get him to listen. My husband admitted last night he is struggling with his relationship with our son bc of it. We don't know if it is a child blatantly just not listening to his parents or if there is something else going on there. It's affecting our family (we have 2 other kids), marriage. Anyone have similar experiences with their child?

Comments

but no matter what we say,

Submitted by just_joe on Tue, 2014-07-22 - 18:09

but no matter what we say, doesn't listen.... You might check with his neurologist to see of he could be having absence seizures. I say that because there were times while in class theachers thought I was day dreaming. They asked the question. They thought I wasn't paying attention. They went to the next student and I started answering their question. I heard the question but was unable to answer because I was having a petite mal (absenc seizure). My husband admitted last night he is struggling with his relationship with our son bc of it. As for his meds. The ones he is on are good. If he is to take them 2 times a day please be sure those are taken 12 hours apart. I take mine at 8 am and pm. If taken at 7am and 10 pm the 3 hour delay at night could cause breakthru seizures. Because medication dosages are to stay at certain levels so the dosages isn't too low. If he is having seizures yo don't know about then he will be tired. The body runs on energy.Each seizures drains energy. In a convulsive seizure my mucles were erking with all the strength it had. While in on at the young age of 13 my step father tried to hold down my are rather then move the coffee table. Well he found out that moving the table would have been easier. I pickek him up and tossed him over my body. Have yo uever seen a person pick up a car so someone could be gotten out from under it. YES an adrilin rush can do it but so can a seizure. Now understand all a seizure is is an electrical impulse going off in the brain causing a chain reaction. That is any kind of seizure, So seizured drain energy which is why people are tired after them and it takes time to get back to normal. Oh and there are medications that help control seizures by calming down the central nervious system. By calming it down they are slowing his reactions down some. At one time I was taking enought phenobarbitol in 1 day to put the average man to sleep for 24 hours then add the dilantim and tegratol. So meds do slow down or make a person tired or look tired. Newer medications are meing created to cut some of that and YES there are some with fewer side effects. I hope this helps and you take this as it was intended to be looked at I hope your son gets better and he can get seizure free

but no matter what we say, doesn't listen.... You might check with his neurologist to see of he could be having absence seizures. I say that because there were times while in class theachers thought I was day dreaming. They asked the question. They thought I wasn't paying attention. They went to the next student and I started answering their question. I heard the question but was unable to answer because I was having a petite mal (absenc seizure).  My husband admitted last night he is struggling with his relationship with our son bc of it.  As for his meds. The ones he is on are good. If he is to take them 2 times a day please be sure those are taken 12 hours apart. I take mine at 8 am and pm. If taken at 7am and 10 pm the 3 hour delay at night could cause breakthru seizures. Because medication dosages are to stay at certain levels so the dosages isn't too low. If he is having seizures yo don't know about then he will be tired. The body runs on energy.Each seizures drains energy. In a convulsive seizure my mucles were erking with all the strength it had. While in on at the young age of 13 my step father tried to hold down my are rather then move the coffee table. Well he found out that moving the table would have been easier. I pickek him up and tossed him over my body. Have yo uever seen a person pick up a car so someone could be gotten out from under it. YES an adrilin rush can do it but so can a seizure. Now understand all a seizure is is an electrical impulse going off in the brain causing a chain reaction. That is any kind of seizure, So seizured drain energy which is why people are tired after them and it takes time to get back to normal. Oh and there are medications that help control seizures by calming down the central nervious system. By calming it down they are slowing his reactions down some. At one time I was taking enought phenobarbitol in 1 day to put the average man to sleep for 24 hours then add the dilantim and tegratol. So meds do slow down or make a person tired or look tired. Newer medications are meing created to cut some of that and YES there are some with fewer side effects. I hope this helps and you take this as it was intended to be looked at I hope your son gets better and he can get seizure free

but no matter what we say, doesn't listen.... You might check with his neurologist to see of he could be having absence seizures. I say that because there were times while in class theachers thought I was day dreaming. They asked the question. They thought I wasn't paying attention. They went to the next student and I started answering their question. I heard the question but was unable to answer because I was having a petite mal (absenc seizure). My husband admitted last night he is struggling with his relationship with our son bc of it. As for his meds. The ones he is on are good. If he is to take them 2 times a day please be sure those are taken 12 hours apart. I take mine at 8 am and pm. If taken at 7am and 10 pm the 3 hour delay at night could cause breakthru seizures. Because medication dosages are to stay at certain levels so the dosages isn't too low. If he is having seizures yo don't know about then he will be tired. The body runs on energy.Each seizures drains energy. In a convulsive seizure my mucles were erking with all the strength it had. While in on at the young age of 13 my step father tried to hold down my are rather then move the coffee table. Well he found out that moving the table would have been easier. I pickek him up and tossed him over my body. Have yo uever seen a person pick up a car so someone could be gotten out from under it. YES an adrilin rush can do it but so can a seizure. Now understand all a seizure is is an electrical impulse going off in the brain causing a chain reaction. That is any kind of seizure, So seizured drain energy which is why people are tired after them and it takes time to get back to normal. Oh and there are medications that help control seizures by calming down the central nervious system. By calming it down they are slowing his reactions down some. At one time I was taking enought phenobarbitol in 1 day to put the average man to sleep for 24 hours then add the dilantim and tegratol. So meds do slow down or make a person tired or look tired. Newer medications are meing created to cut some of that and YES there are some with fewer side effects. I hope this helps and you take this as it was intended to be looked at I hope your son gets better and he can get seizure free

No problem. Many of us are

Submitted by just_joe on Thu, 2014-07-24 - 17:35

No problem. Many of us are here to try and help others because we want them to learn and understand what is happening. As for the time and meds IT took me years to learn that but once i realized that some of my seizures were breakthru seizures I kept taking them as close to 12 hours as I could. Oh and I would also suggest yo uget the My Epilepsy Diary. It can be found on this site under the get helps section. Watch the video which tells you how to use it and what it can do. Enter his meds and it has a mood section, It has a note pad and several other things. You can give his neurologist permission to bring it up. If you do he can look at the information check out the graphs and other things. By doing that he can come up with medications, dosages amd procedures that could get him seizure free.