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Has anyone heard of something like this before?
Tue, 05/16/2017 - 20:10I had to call an ambulance on Friday (4 days ago) for my 8 year old. My sister was worried because she said she noticed she was forgetting words when she was speaking to her. She was saying her head hurt, so I gave her Advil & had her lay down thinking that it was probably a migraine. She was crying saying that it was getting worse, so I had her lay in the bath to relax & called her dad to take her to the ER. When she got out of the bath she couldn't stand up right, she was falling all over & acting very strange. She couldn't remember her name or her age. That's when I dialed 911. When the paramedics got here she was so confused & had no clue what was going on. Her pupils were large, she was so pale. By this time her dad & my dad had showed up. My dad tried talking to her and she had no clue who he was even though she had just seen him 10 minutes earlier. Her words were slurred & she made no sense when she tried to talk. When we got to the hospital the Drs said she looked postictal. She was clammy, extremely tired, & she kept moving her eyes back and forth very awkwardly. They took blood work to rule out infection & transferred her by ambulance to the nearest pediatrics. When we got there they did a CT (which was normal) & diagnosed her with migraines. My only worry is that they are missing something. They didn't see her in her confused state so I feel like they aren't doing enough investigating. I ended up taking her back to the hospital that we were at first to get a second opinion. The Dr that seen her sent in a requisition for an EEG in two weeks. If it was in a seizure will it even show up on the EEG?
Comments
I started having epilepsy in
Submitted by MsRie on Wed, 2017-05-17 - 17:29
I started having epilepsy in 2015, my life haven't been the same
Thank you for your reply! I
Submitted by Kaybecer on Fri, 2017-05-19 - 10:24
Thank you for your reply! I have scheduled a follow up with my daughters family dr following the EEG. I'm hoping she will send out a requisition to see a pediatric neurologist (the nearest one is over 4hrs away). I spoke with my family dr & she said that we will wait to see what the EEG results will be before we take any further steps. With all that I've been reading though, a single EEG isn't enough to rule out a seizure. I also just found out that my grandfathers sister had epilepsy (I had no prior knowledge of this), so it is in my family. This whole situation has my head spinning. It's been replaying over in my head ever since it happened. I just hope we are able to get some answers soon!
diagnosis of epilepsy is not
Submitted by Amy Jo on Wed, 2017-05-17 - 01:23
diagnosis of epilepsy is not something that an emergency department does well - lots of things can mimic seizures and neurological issues. this also goes for an emergency department at a children's hospital although they probably have access to pediatric neurologist (children can present differently than adults for various issues), it can be really hit or miss. an emergency department does best focusing on life threatening situations, stable people go elsewhere for complex problems. CT is great when one looks for bleeding in the brain (which would be an emergency) but doesn't catch other things MRI may see, CT and MRI are not interchangeable. seizures can be a primary problem or secondary to something else - and if that wasn't a seizure there was a serious neurological problem occurring that sounds way more than just a migraine so keep listening to your gut!first thing is get more follow up arranged than just the eeg, pediatric neurologist (appts do not happen quickly but ask about being on a list for short notice cancellations) at minimum because if a seizure-like episode is from another condition, neurology is right where you want to be. if it's epilepsy then you probably want a pediatric epileptologist (neurologists who specialize in epilepsy, makes a difference for epilepsy unless you get a bad fit doc, happens sometimes). note eegs do not rule out epilepsy, people with epilepsy can have clear eegs. there are actually a variety of eegs and the often scheduled shorter initial eeg misses a lot. eegs can rule in epilepsy and they don't always need to see a seizure (better when they do) as there are different patterns that are associated with various epilepsies. find out what the nearest well regarded pediatric hospital for neurology and neurosurgery is (see us news pediatric hospital rankings).