New to Site ... Looking for symptom similarities

[RobinN]

I use raw sugar for the little bit of sweetener that I need occasionally.

[Nikola]

Marilee,

I just found this forum and I was reading your post. I am wondering if these strange things happen after you give her the medication. I am only asking because my daughter is also on lamictal and was throwing up and was always falling asleep and would wake up alot better. I would call our neurologist over and over for six months and he would tell me it was not the Lamictal or Keppra. We finally took her out of state and found a epileptologist who confirmed my thoughts that it was the lamictal. We slowly backed her off . It was amazing to see her running and playing again. She is still on it but on a low dose with two other medications. If she does not eat enough in the morning she will have ataxia.

Our thoughts are with you!
Niki

[Marilee]

I'm only in for a moment (taking a break at work) - but I had read somewhere that Stevia could cause fertility problems in men?? I looked it up on Webmd and it only stated that Stevia has not been evaluated by the FDA yet because it is considered a supplement and not a sweetener. They didn't have anything negative to say about Splenda, and acutally, I use that all the time and really prefer it if I don't use regular sugar.

I had heard before that caffeine has the opposite affect on pre-pubescents, so although I had not tried caffeine for calming her down, I kind of knew about that possiblity; just hadn't really thought of it recently.

As far as migraines go - my daughter would vomit because of the dizziness and only her stomach would hurt; she's never complained of headaches during the symptoms. I'm trying to remember if she's ever had light sensitivity before, and I cannot recall that she has had that, either (since that is a sign of migraines). I think her only pain is her tummy because of the vomiting; sometimes it's only once, but if the spinning is severe, she may do it longer (on Monday she was vomiting every 15-30 minutes for over 3 hours).

We'll see her "new" doctor on Wednesday and see what she has to say. She's been on lamictal for years, so maybe they'll try something else, I don't know. Does having a form of epilepsy qualfiy you for SSI, or does it have to be severe or ongoing? Anyway, not the main point - just need to figure out how to keep these symptoms away and hopefully get the seizures to go away! I'm sure you all can identify with that ...

[Marilee]

Well, that is misleading - there were no "new findings". We saw an adult neurologist since her peds neurologist had left and I wanted to get her seen quickly. She wasn't having any symptoms at that point, but the doctor said the follow-up ped neurologist that I had on the calendar was an excellent doctor and in fact was an epileptologist (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly since I've never seen that title before in the doctor's office before). He came up with the same conclusion as some of you - she's 9 years old and coming up on puberty, so it's possible that these are migraine symptoms and once she gets the extra boost of hormones, the headache part may start. Really not what I want to think about my "baby" going through, but a bridge we'll cross if it happens. So, I guess our next step is to take care of the rest of her brain - I'll see about getting her ADHD diagnosed properly and if necessary, we'll see if we can find a medication to help her focus (we've been down this road with my 16-yr old, with mainly good results), and get her into some kind of extra-curricular activity to help her fine motor skills (which seem to have reduced since the seizures have started several years ago). Her tests and labs have all been reviewed and show no tumor, scar tissue or anything else that could be causing these symptoms; AND her medication seems to be at a good level, also. I am so thankful her seizures are not at a level as many of the stories I've read, but - God willing - we'll find a cure for this soon!!!