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11 year old seizures out of nowhere
Thu, 01/25/2018 - 21:44Topic: Living With Epilepsy - Youth
So my son started having seizures out of the blue at age 11 about 6 months ago. Was eating breakfast one morning and went into seizure while at breakfast table. Ex wife call 911 and he was taken to children's hospital. Seizures continued about once a week for a few weeks as he was put on Keppra. While at follow up with primary care physician he was diagnosed with a hyperactive thyroid/ graves disease. Keppra was upped every seizure and they would occur every 4 to 6 weeks. Thyroid was treated with radioactive iodine ablation. At a follow up with Neuro we discussed his mood, he was very negative, very angry.. and we chose to move him to Trileptal. So tapered him down off Keppra and ramped up the Trileptal. Now we are 6 weeks or so since last seizure and son is now taking thyroid supplement, we think we are in clear. Hoping the chance the hyper thyroid was triggering the seizures and then yesterday he had 4 seizures with 3 hours. Never more than one a week.. He has had a touch of a virus or cold....and it seems like this has been the case around the time of every seizure. Thoughts? I am terrified he is going to seizure and fell again and hurt himself again.. or is this getting worse? why? All Mris have been normal.
Comments
MRIS are NOT a diagnostic
Submitted by mereloaded on Fri, 2018-02-02 - 09:42
MRIS are NOT a diagnostic tool for epilepsy. MOST epilepsy patients have normal MRIs. The most common epilepsy diagnosis is “idiopathic” meaning of no know cause, that means that the epilepsy was not caused by traumatic brain injury, stoke, brain abnormalities, brain scarring etc. Having a normal MRI is irrelevant as far as an epilepsy diagnosis goes.Having epilepsy simply means that they have a lower threshold for seizures. Anyone can have a seizure, but when you have a lower threshold for seizures means that you can have them more often than the rest of the population. Having the flu can make epilepsy symptoms flare up, but note that it is not because of the flu that is causing the seizures but rather triggering the epilepsy symptoms. Epilepsy is often life long and things like changes in health, stress, etc. can trigger the symptoms. Epilepsy means that you have more seizures than most, and after two unexplained seizures, epilepsy is diagnosed. MRI being clean and thyroid problem addressed then epilepsy is suspected. An EEG should be next.Yes, certain thyroid conditions can cause seizure but once the thyroid problems are addressed they should go away, if they are not, then it is completely possible to have BOTH as one is not exclusive of the other. Have your child have an EEG yet? Ps/ A lot of epilepsy syndromes start around adolescence. A lot of people mistakenly think that people with epilepsy are born having seizures and that is not true. Some folks don’t get them until well into adulthood, Good luck
many people with epilepsy
Submitted by Amy Jo on Fri, 2018-01-26 - 01:05
many people with epilepsy have clear MRIs. sometimes damage is found when they examine tissue that was taken out so an MRI just eliminates some possibilities.some people have seizures start a while (often years) after a head injury. sometimes kids have seizures start or change around puberty. can’t really say much from what you’ve written except some things sound common... have to assume he has partial seizures given the medication choice and illness can lower seizure thresholds for lots of people. there are other common triggers, suggest you check out what they say under the learn section of this site. the more you know about what seizures he is having and where his focal area(s) are, might help you adjust to his situation.fwiw - my 11yo has had simple partials, complex partials and some generalized seizures, initially diagnosed five years ago with seizures first noted over six month prior to diagnosis, odd episodes occurred at least the year prior to that. i it can take a while to figure out what the issues are for each person. you probably can go up on the trileptal if he’s having breakthrough seizures so call your child’s neurology group. depending on where you live (because everyone refers to their local children’s hospital as children’s), your local epilepsy foundation affiliate may have a support group, camp and/or local conferences. you can also find affiliate info on this site.