Is this a seizure?

[cgsunbabe]

So we believe that my 8 year old son has had a least 3 seizures while sleeping, the first (that we know of) 12/24/09. He bit his mouth open REALLY bad, and slept through it. I have been taping him at night, hoping to catch something for the neurologist. It is really hard to review 8 hours of video... so I have a feeling I have missed many of these short episodes.

By looking at the video it seems like it is involves the left side of the body only, but I can't be sure. His head tilts up kind of strange. Can anyone tell me IF this is a seizure, and if so what type???

The video is on youtube if you search video's by - just4myself19
This website wouldn't let me post a link.


Thank you so much!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5FTB4_RSM

[cgsunbabe]

Thank you for including the link. It is now at the bottom of the post! I look forward to hearing your thoughts, while we are waiting to see the neurologist. When reviewing the videos it appears that on the nights he's had these, he usually has 3-4 of them.

I should note that max has also recently had issues with psychosis (actually dx). The mental health stuff started at the same time, and seems to be related. I am sure that he isn't faking. He is deeply asleep during and after these...

[Nakamova]

What you describe does sound like seizures, and it may well be that your son's psychosis is seizure-related as well. Some of the symptoms of psychotic behavior could be provoked be seizure activity, depending what part of the brain his seizures are originating in. Do you know if there was a specific trigger that initiated your son's seizures or psychosis?

It's great that you have been documenting the the seizures -- the more info you can give the doctors the better.

Best,
Nakamova

[Rae1889]

Hey dear.
What made you take him in to be checked for the psycosis? Can you describe how he acts on a regular basis? Space outs? Hallucinations? Twitches?

Also what meds was he put on for this.
A lot of things can come into play here.

From watching the video, its a little hard to tell whether its him stretching or whether its a seizure. And if it is a seizure, It looks more like a complex partial than a tonic clonic *grand mal*

Does he ever cry out before he has one? Has he ever peed his pants after. Has he ever had anything like this during the day time or during school?

[cgsunbabe]

He started hallucinating-- hearing voices and seeing things. He became full of rage, fully intending to hurt those around him... he could not be reasoned with- in his mind it appeared to be a life or death battle. The gave an rx for Ativan, and later Valium. Neither worked at all, Ativan made it MUCH worse. Note that he was one high doses for both and wasn't even sleepy or slow.

The just put him on Vistirl (simple partial?), and anxiety med. So far he has been doing better, no more psychosis.

As for the seizures, he has bit his mouth so hard that muscle was exposed- he slept through it. He has wet and messed himself. Woken up with aches and pains. I am assuming seizures, because I know of nothing else that would cause a person to sleep through such intensly painful stuff.

We have done an MRI (normal), and an EEG that I'd don't have the results back for.

Thank you

[cgsunbabe]

It auto changed my abbreviation for spelling to simple partial, lol... I just meant that I wasn't sure about the spelling for the Vistirl

[cgsunbabe]

During the day the only thing that I've noticed (aside from the mental health) is that he seems space-out and act clumsy at times. Before all of this Max was pretty normal, though he has gotten special education help for speech, reading, and writing.

Everything kind of got bad really fast, if you know what I mean. My son was pretty normal until last month.

[Rae1889]

Well I typically see/ hear things that arent there. voices, shapes, glitter, streaks of light. and I'd hear voices and things that I couldnt make out. so I would just make up words to how it sounded.

It is possible that those are grand mals. Complex partials and drop seizures makes someone appear clumsy and disoriented. it also can look like acting out. The post-ictal stage of this however is what usually people think as being violent. I once bit my fiance after a seizure and stuggled and hit him because I couldnt remember who he was, or where I was so i thought he kidnapped me and wanted to kill me.

Absence seizures look like spacing out or daydreaming. they can happen mid sentence or during normal pauses so they are often not noticed.

If things manifest on his left side, chances are they originate from the right side of the brain. So the EEG should give some insight. Just remember though that EEGs can come back completely normal and the person could still have visible grand mals

Vistaril is used for Severe bi-polar. so are most anti-epileptic drugs Mine is Lamictal, and it is also prescribed for both bipolar and seizure control, so that may be why it seems to work better to hold off "simple partials"

but sometimes its hard to stop the bigger ones. I go back and forth from small seizure control and no big seizure control and vice versa.

hopefully they can help that. myabe keep him home for a day and video tape him for most of it. this way you can pick up some of the smaller activity.