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Son Recently Diagnosed
Fri, 08/07/2015 - 10:26Looking for some input. My 6 year old son was recently diagnosed with absence seizures, our neuro believes they are genetic since my husband had them growing up. My husband was never propery diagnosed or treated and just stopped having them about 7 years ago, he is 38. In the beginning, my son's seizures were typical of an absence, his eyes would flutter or roll back and they would only last a few seconds. The past few months, they have changed; when he has an episode he will have the eye fluttering, but he also will repeatedly say a word. The other day when he had one he said, "dabi, dabi, dabi, dabi, dabi" and the seizures are lasting about 10-12 seconds now. He has had two EEG's and they both showed abnormal activity in the front and left part of his brain and it was suggested by his neuro to have an MRI to rule out the possiblity of a cyst growing in his brain. His MRI is in a few weeks and I wasn't too happy when his neuro told us to call the office for results . . . shouldn't he be calling us? Does this sound strange to anyone?
Just wondering if anyone, or their child, has experienced these types of symptoms during a seizure? We are not currently medicating due to the concerns of the side effects of the medications.
Thank you for any input you can provide.
Hi! I have generalized
Submitted by jkarsies@hotmail.com on Thu, 2015-08-13 - 13:43
Hi! I have generalized epilepsy myself - had absence seizures growing up which changed to tonic-clonic as an adult. I am very well-controlled on Keppra. I also have a son with generalized epilepsy (age 7) on Keppra and another son (age 9) with what we think is focal epilepsy (taking Trileptal). Your son's symptoms do NOT sound like absence seizures. Absence seizures are generalized and affect the whole brain at the same time. It sounds to me like your son has partial seizures, especially if the EEG is coming back abnormal on one side of the brain. With my oldest his first EEG came back with an abnormality on one side of the brain and then they ordered an MRI. The MRI revealed a lesion on his Occiipital Lobe. If there is a major finding on your son's MRI they will contact you immediately. If results are normal it could take up to 2 weeks for results to come back. Basically, if you don't hear from your Doctor's office right away then more than likely they did not find anything major on the MRI. In regards to medicating your son: it is scary. BUT, there are a lot of safe medications out there with little to no side effects. The thing about partial seizures is that if left untreated they can progress into a generalized seizure. Best of luck and keep us updated!