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New Here: 11 yr old with possible absence seizures / 24hr EEG results expected this week
Wed, 02/21/2018 - 00:34Topic: Parents & Caregivers
Hi all,
I am new here. I am in research mode to familiarize myself about absence seizures. My son is 11 yrs old and I first started to suspect absence seizures seriously last summer. Long story short, we had our first consult with a neurologist last week who ordered a 24hr EEG who stopped short of saying it was absence seizures but agreed video I shared and her initial in take looked "suspicious". She talked a bit about absence seizures and gave me the feeling it was not unreasonable to consider absence seizures were likely being experienced. Initial testing (blowing for three minutes) triggered an episode and showed a seizure was happening when he was wearing the EEG before we left the office and we return this Thursday for a follow up consult . The seizures that I witnessed in the office was VERY brief but typical of what I see at home.
My son was diagnosed with a language disorder at 3yrs and though he can express himself well now, the nature of his language disorder persists, along with weak working memory.
My questions for experienced members of the board are:
What should I bear in mind when I meet with the neurologist this week?
What questions will be good to ask?
I understand there is a high correlation of absence seizures with learning disabilities -- is this correct and where can I go to learn more?
Is it possible seizures are impacted my son's working memory to the degree it impairs is learning and language development?
Is it worth getting an MRI, what are the likely next steps?
Where can I learn more about treatment plans and medication for absence seizures?
Feel free to tell me anything that's good for a newbie to know -- feel free to point me to links for FAQs or whatever is a good place to start for someone collecting information.
I am hoping for new insights here to how I can best help meet my son's needs and better understand exactly what we are facing. Currently, I am not concerned -- I am taking it seriously, but not taking it as a life sentence if that makes sense. I basically want to educate myself so that I know when we are getting good treatment, and good advice.
Thank you in advance for anything you can offer me.
Warmly,
K
Comments
ethosuximide (zarontin) and
Submitted by Amy Jo on Wed, 2018-02-21 - 01:08
ethosuximide (zarontin) and valproate (depakote) are common treatments for the common forms of absence seizures. my child currently takes lamotrigine to treat her partial seizures (mostly controlled), atypical absence (completely controlled based on EEG checks) and myoclonics (pretty sure those are completely controlled but I can't catch those). there are a lot of meds out there.ask what the docs top two choices are for treatment, get an idea what the common side effects are and how long those might last, what the concerning side effects that need to be reported asap are, how to contact the docs office in an emergency or after hours to leave a non emergent message, etc...
very helpful -- thank you! :-
Submitted by kjansta on Wed, 2018-02-21 - 10:46
very helpful -- thank you! :-) I am in the process of connecting with neuro psychs for a full eval. I have some assessments that indicate learning issues but not from a neuropsych. Hoping a neuorpysch will provide a clearer picture and compliment findings from a neurologist & the eeg
I think your doc is checking
Submitted by Amy Jo on Wed, 2018-02-21 - 00:59
I think your doc is checking for more than absence with a 24 hour EEG. I think it is quite careful for the doc to check for possible activity during sleep as that is also associated with forms of epilepsy that can adversely impact learning. Typical absence can usually be caught with a short EEG, breathing usually does it and he's already shown that is a trigger. You can't research all the freaking ways things can go weird with learning issues, you'll need to wait for the results of the EEG. You can ask in advance for a potential neuropsych evaluation which can identify problem areas (like specifics about working memory, heck, you probably have already gotten one but another one after meds are shown to be working might be helpful in that case). For generalized epilepsy it is not usually worthwhile to ask for imaging so ask the doc if imaging would be helpful in his case.