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Focal onset Seizures
Sat, 08/16/2014 - 19:56My 13 yrs old with no prior seizures history started having tonic clonic seizures last month. His CAT scan, oxygen levels, electrolytes are normal. His MRI was normal while sleep deprived EEG showed frequent burst of spike and high voltage slow wave discharge over left frontal region and neurologist diagnosed him with focal onset seizures.
He is on depakote right now.
What can trigger seizures out of blue? Should I do any other testing to find out what could have triggered it? Depakote is making him extremely sluggish and sleepy. Is there any other relatively safer drug that he can take?
It looks like all the tests
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2014-08-17 - 10:05
It looks like all the tests have been done. Many came back normal. It looks like the EEG has abnormalities in it. His diagnosis is focal onset seizures. I was 13 when I had my first ever grand mal seizure (tonic clonic). I was also the last grand mal seizure I had. Your question is still being asked and it has been asked for many years. My mother asked those same questions back in 1963. However I still have some seizures and had been having seizures for about 2 years prior to that grand mal. I was written up for day dreaming in class for about 2 years. I also had some wierd feelings in my hand. In the same hand I would feel a twitch now and then. Those day dreams wer absence seizures. Those wierd feelongs were focal seizures. The medications he is on is good and has worked on many people. If he hasn't ben on his medications long those could be side effects. It does take the body 2-3 weeks to get used to the medication. After that he may still be dri=ozy now and then. You do need to keep an eye on his dosages while he is growing. One year I had to have my dosages changed 5-6 times in less than a year. Growing will do that. IN that time period I grew 9-10 inches in height and gained about 60 lbs...