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My son is new to epilepsy and I"M VERY NERVOUS
Thu, 04/06/2006 - 15:04Topic: Parents & Caregivers
Hi. My 4 1/2 year old son was just yesterday diagnosed with childhood absense epilepsy. I have noticed for a while that he at times seems in his own world, or that he doesn't always answer when he is spoken to. But I thought he was just being a typical boy. Then he had an incident at preschool when the teacher said he zoned out for about 1 minute. His faced looked blank, his eyes glazed over. Then he came out of it and he was fine. His ped thought it could be a seizure, and after an EEG, a neurologist diagnosed it as CAE. They would like to put him on zarontin, but I am very nervous doing so because he doesn't really seem that bad to me. Has anyone else struggled with this issue? Should I get a second opinion? Does anyone have a child with CAE who is not being medicated? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. I know absolutely nothing about this disorder.
Re: My son is new to epilepsy and I"M VERY NERVOUS
Submitted by stressndepress on Fri, 2006-04-28 - 10:22
Natalie F My daughter is 5 and was diagnose with absence seizure at the age of 3 however I was just like you and thought that it was minor and she didn’t really needed the meds boy was I wrong. We started out at 5 attacks per day then it went to 9 making it hard for her to concentrate in preschool and keep focus. When she started when she started school her grades were up and when not on meds her grades went down. With meds the attacks are less and she can focus. A second is Opinion is always good. Her first doctor prescribed carbamazepine. With all trust I started her on that little did I know that it would have worsen the situation by daughter went from having her harmless attacks to getting weak at every attack and falling down sometimes unconscious. After taking her off that the attacks went from 5 to 18 attacks per day. So you see it’s not harmless and a second advice will always be safe. Zarontin works well and is the best med I came across Depakeen also. She is on that now and attack free. Finding out the cause is the most frustrating thing and a med that will work well with your child. I can’t find the cause why my daughter is having there seizures. Wish you the best of this long and weary road. God bless