Jackie |
Last Activity: 10-22-2008 09:43 AM
About Me
- About Jackie
- Seizure Background
- My 14 yer. old daughter has petit mal, beginning at age 4 and secodnary myoclonic beginning at age 12.5 yrs. old. Petit mal controlled for years with depakote. When myoclonics started, changed to Zonegram, which has pretty much controlled both. Occasionally she will have a myoclonic jerk. Although we don's see any petit mal, EEG still show spikes. She does still stare off, but she is more aware of it, where when it began, she did not know she was having a seizure. She has severe cognitive issues. Reading and math on 3rd, 4th grade level. Severe processing disorder. Dyslexic. Sleep disorder (has trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Takes melatonin for that.) Memory retention problems with rote memory. Attention impaired. Doesn't understand concepts. Spelling is phonetic. Writing is on a 1st to 2nd grade level. Both in writing and sentence structure. IQ is low, but not classified in the "retarded" level. IQ has gone down since middle school years began. Socially, fairly normal. Only problems is her vocabulary is not on par with peers, so she doesn't always understand some of what they say, but she adapts, and most people don't even know she is in special education. Can gets depressed sometimes, but not much more than most other teens. Has a low self concept b/c she feels stupid. She is a stunningly beautiful girl, which makes it even harder for her, b/c she appears so "normal" but when friends find out, they treat her a little different. Used several ADD meds, but they caused heart palps and severe depression. Was on them from 1-5 grades. Depression got so bad, she wanted to harm herself. I saw the connection with the drug, b/c in the summere when she was not on them, she was fine. Took her off, and severe depression went away. Much more difficult in school b/c they did help her with attention, but not to retain information. Has had two Neuropsych. Evals., overnight sleep study, 4 hour video eeg. 2 Cardiologists for heart palps, and therapist for depression. Always has private tutoring. Tried private OT services for handwriting. Now 14 and still can't tell time or count money or memorize math facts, read, write or spell on at least a close level to her age. Gets extremely fatigued when tries to read.