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No Diagnosis

Mon, 08/14/2006 - 08:26
My 22 month old son has been inpatient for seizures for more than 30 days since May 1, 2006. On May 1, Beau was 18 months old, he vommitted and then began having a complex partial seizure, mostley in his eyes, left side of his face and neck and left arm. His seizure lasted over an hour and was stopped in the emergency room. We then stayed in the PICU for two weeks looking at several reasons for the seizure. Nothing was found. Beau has had three more seizures since May 1, all lasting close to an hour except the most recent one was over two hours. We go to the emergency room every time to have the seizures stopped. We had a diagnosis of ADEM for a while and went through a steroid treatment for 5 days. Beau seemed to get better, he seemed strong and almost like his old self. We were so hopeful that we had a diagnosis, but now after this fourth seizure and some leg movements that the doctors aren't sure what to call he is back to being a mystery. My husband and I are very scared especially since we don't know what to expect. Beau will have some genetic testing done later this week, however nothing even remotely like this runs in our families. Beau is on so much medication that he can't even hold his head up. He was on zonogran, phenobarb and dilantin for a week and he barely woke up to eat. His neurologist stopped the dilantin on Friday because both the dilantin and the phenobarb levels were much higher than therapeutic. I have a call in now to see why he is so medicated. This nightmare since May 1 doesn't have an end in sight. We are told that we might not get a diagnosis other than seizure disorder. That's fine but we want our son to wake up and have some quality of life. Any advise on medication, coping and patience is needed.

Comments

Re: No Diagnosis

Submitted by Corazon on Wed, 2006-09-13 - 17:12
...Hoping you and yours are doing better, I know how frightening this is for you guys... My daughter, who is now 7, had her first seizure @ 22 months as well. That first seizure was a febrile seizure where she completely lost control of all bodily functions, she also vomited. At the time Dr's told us that she might or might not ever have a seizure again, but exactly one month later she had another, this time without the fever. She has since been diagnosed as having a "seizure disorder". We are still to find a "reason" as well. She has been tested for all metabollic disorders and they've return with negative results. She's been on her fair share of medications. Not every medicine works for everyone. You'll probably go through a few yourselves before you find the right fit. My child has been on a combination of Depakote(valproic acid) and Keppra for a few years now and she's been seizure free for a bit over a year now. We've recently had to add a mood stabilizer to her regimen becuse of an increase in agressive behavior along with B6 since she's taking Keppra and a side-effect of it is what we're experiencing with her now. Getting informed and in touch with an agency that helps parents cope with special kids has been crucial in getting through this with my daughter. Hang in there, educate yourselves as much as possible and keep a journal. Best wishes!

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