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Need help with diagnosis

Wed, 10/31/2007 - 09:24
My son started having "blackouts' about a month and a half ago. I sort of ignored it at first because I thought it was something typical like getting up too fast. I told him to tell me each time it happened. Some days it would happen once or twice and some days five times. Almost always at the computer or in the car. Then it stopped. It started again about a week later. I have taken him to a Ped Neuro. He examined him, had him hyperventilate and then said he doesn't think it's seizures but he will do an EEG which we did the next day. It was with flashing lights and hyperventilation - toward the end he started getting tingling like he was going to have one and they stopped the test because he was agitated. Also, it was done by a trainee, the tech left the room, every time the line jumped she put movement whether he was moving or not. I don't know if that's significant. It came out normal. The doctor told me he didn't think it was seizures so I asked him what else it could be. He said he had no suggestions so I asked him if he thought my son was making it up. He said no but I suspect that's what he thinks. He kept laughing at me throughout the phone call. My son also has growth hormone deficiency from hypothalamic/pituitary origin so I asked him for an MRI to make sure he doesn't have a lesion or tumor. He said no. I called him back last week to let him know that my son has had more "blackouts" so he ordered a 4 hour ambulatory which I don't think will show anything because he almost always has them within an hour after waking and this would later in the day. I tried to get him to order a sleep deprived but he won't do it. He said if it was anything it would be absence seizures which is what my sister had so I think he is testing for that. My son says that he gets tingling in his arms and legs and his head feels really hot and then he "blacks out". From what I have observed, he will look off into space - he looks like he's about to say something but doesn't - he won't answer when I call him. Sometimes he smacks his lips or this morning he resumed eating his cereal but wouldn't answer to me. This morning he had two in a row. The first one no tingling and just a blank look - just before this he kept saying Mom, Mom, Mom over and over but wouldn't answer me. Then he said he had a "black out". Right after that he got the blank look again for a half minute or so and then started eating his cereal but wouldn't answer me. When I asked him if he was OK after a minute he was saying garbled stuff and then finally he said he had another one. This seems to me to match a complex partial seizure possibly rather than absence. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. I'm new at this and don't really trust this doctor. If it doesn't sound like a seizure, please let me know that too or if you have any thoughts about what else it could be.

Comments

Re: Re: Re: Need help with diagnosis

Submitted by wargrass on Thu, 2007-11-01 - 20:05
Re: Re: Need help with diagnosis Good thing, the new MRI. Also, don't forget that at 10 he is prepubescent so you have the hormone shift thing going on. When is the last time they checked his hormone production? A shift in hormones could be a contributing factor. Kids are developing earlier now because of all the hormones in milk and meat. Good luck and God bless, Kelly

Re: Re: Re: Re: Need help with diagnosis

Submitted by kgoodfl on Fri, 2007-11-02 - 08:43
Thanks - I didn't think of this.

If any thing, it sounds to

Submitted by SunflowerPower on Fri, 2007-11-02 - 21:24
If any thing, it sounds to me like your neuro thinks you are an over anxious, neurotic Mom. Don't worry about Munchhausen by proxy. If you dislike this neuro so much then you should get a new one. I haven't pushed to get a new MRI for myself because my left sided weakness isn't too horrible and there may come a time where I really need an MRI later for some other reason, and I don't want to blow it on finding the cause of mild one sided weakness. I'm afraid doctors wouldn't order a third MRI for sure if the second one was normal, no matter what the circumstances. I refused a second MRI before my left sided weakness happened for that very reason. I'm glad I did too. That was a different doctor though who I no longer see. Let us know how your son's MRI turns out.

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