My son's seizure happened on the opposite side?

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Okay, so I am a bit panicked, I am hoping someone can shed some light. My son's seizures have increased over the past 4 months, it is a long story but we are currently on 100 mgs of Lamictal 2x per day and 1500 mgs of Keppra AM and 1250 PM, plus Clonazopam before bed.
Last night he had 5 partial seizures, the strange thing is that he always has seizures in his left leg and last night everything was on the right side. I spoke to the neuro and she mentioned something so quickly that I did not catch it. Now she wants him in the hospital for an extended EEG next week.
Does anyone have any insight, is this a progression of epilepsy? Does it mean anything that it happened on the opposite side?
Thanks for any help!
Beth
 
Generally, if seizures start in a specific area of the brain, then the initial symptoms of the seizure often are connected to the functions of that area. The right half of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left half of the brain controls the right side of the body, so if a seizure starts from the right side of the brain in the area that controls movement in the big toe, then the seizure might begin with jerking of the left big toe.

So the fact that his symptoms have "switched sides" suggest that there has been some progression or change in his epilepsy. His seizures may now be "multifocal" -- i.e. with focal points in several parts of the brain rather than on just the one side. But it sounds like his neurologist isn't entirely sure, so best to see what the EEG turns up.

Sometimes the anti-seizure meds can trigger seizures instead, so it's possible that changing up his meds will help stop this new activity.
 
Thank you! Do u mind if I ask, how does Epilepsy change? Is it a progression or just different? Is it that the seizures are doing harm? Does this mean he is getting worse? He is taking more meds now then ever, we are trying to get the Lamictal up to speed so we can lower the Keppra and eventually stop it, but at this point he is not even controlled on both.
 
Is it a progression or just different?
Unfortunately, it's hard to tell -- epilepsy is so diverse and unpredictable. The precise sequence of events leading to the development of new seizure focus points isn't well understood. The right-side seizures could be a progression, but they could also be a temporary lowering of the seizure threshold.
 
Hi, My 21 month son's events have been altering since we first noticed them around 7 months. They have altered in typed of event and length. He still has a couple of different events each day. At 18months they found a lesion on his putamen which they think is causing his issues but are not 100% sure. He usually goes left with most of his events but we do get some going to the right. At times he has strange shaking movements with his arms, it could be one arm or the other or both. His Paed and Nureo have both said what he does is a bit unusual, but then his whole condition has everyone searching for answers.
One thing I have learn't from talking to all of his medical team is that things are not always text book and thats OK, just to keep a record of them, video where possible and then let Nureo know at next appointment or ealier if things change. Without my the footage of what happens with our little man, and the journal I keep, I am sure we would not be anywhere as far along the road to working out what is going on.
Take Care.
Donna
 
Beth, how old is your son? How old was he when he started having seizures?

Certain childhood epilepsies can be progressive, and several of them get worse right around the time the child starts school, and then again at puberty. Other childhood epilepsies tend to fade away as the child gets older.

Regular epilepsy can also be progressive if not controlled well. There's an old saying, "Seizures breed seizures."

Seizures can also change in type. Our Jonathan started out with tonic/clonics (grand mal), then he added in tonics, and now gelastic seizures. He started out having only 1 seizure a month, as a baby, then seizures were controlled with meds for several years, then when he was school aged, started having seizures again, and they gradually increased to weekly events, and then he went on Ketogenic diet and was seizure free for a year, and now he's back to having worse seizure than ever -- 1 to 3 tonics each day, plus gelastics (he was also having tonic-clonic, but meds are now controlling those). EEGs show most seizures originating in right temporal lobe, but a few originate on the left. To add to the confusion, he's now being evaluated for hypothalamic hamartoma (which causes laughing seizures and early puberty), and this type of epilepsy is ALWAYS progressive, AND often masquerades as temporal lobe epilepsy.
 
Karen, my son was diagnosed at 7.5, he just turned 9. His seizures started out as nocturnal only, so we are not sure how long he was having them before we actually saw a tonic clonic. The past summer he had two during the day so that was a big change for us. His EEG's can not determine the actual start of the seizure, we know it is focal but it is inner hemispheric and too deep to see from which lobe. He was completely controlled with Keppra for about 6 months, then he had a few seizures so we upped the meds. He can no longer hold the Keppra so have switched to Lamictal but so far we have been unable to even begin to reduce the keppra because he is having several partial seizures a week. That being said he is now taking more meds then ever and having more seizures then ever. He takes 2,750 of keppra a day and 200 mgs of Lamictal a day. Plus we are using Clonazapam before bed. The doc is concerned so we are going back into NYU next week for more monitoring!
 
That's a huge amount of Keppra! Jon is 8, and is on 500 mg of Keppra, and the side effects from that amount are significant.

Has he had an MRI?

Using Clonazapam regularly can be problematic because the body quickly grows used to it (within 2 or 3 weeks) and it no longer works unless the dose is increased. And then weaning off it almost always causes withdrawal seizures (unless switched over to Diazepam and then weaned off that).
 
He has had an MRI, it was clean. My son had side effects too but adjusted until we got to really high numbers, he is at 2,750 a day and it is too much for him, which is why we have switched to Lamictal, but it is taking a really long time to get to a high enough dose.
Have you tried B6? It really helps with the mood, we saw a huge change in him when he started taking it.
 
Jon has been on B6 for a long time -- the vitamin/supplement formula he's on does really help with seizure control as well. However, he has a tendency to go psychotic with certain meds -- trileptal, diazepam and Keppra. And now he's on both Diazepam and Keppra, which is a very bad mix. Especially since it doeesn't seem to be helping his seizures.
 
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