New and im a concerned parent with child with complex partial seizures

[Mom1998]

My son is 14yrs old and was diagnosed with complex partial seizures in 2009. He has been seizure free for 2yrs so the doctor will be weaning him off his meds. My onlynconcern is that his mri showed a very small lesion on his left temporal lobe, good news is there hasnt been any changes to it. He is getting ready to enter high school and is very active with sports. His seizures use to be where he wouldnt remember them and he would just stare and not talk lasting fir a couple minutes thhen they got to where he would feel them coming and just have a funny feeling for a minute or so. My big concern is that im scared they will become the gran mal seizures if he gets weaned off and has one. I dont know why i think that, my husband says no those arent the kind that he has and that henwould of already had those by now. Any advice would be great!

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Mom1998, welcome to CWE!

First off, your husband's wrong -- it is possible for seizures to change in kind and it's not unusual for them to start off absences and partials and eventually escalate to tonic-clonics (grand mal seizures). Unfortunately, there's no way to predict what happens in every case -- epilepsy is sooooo frustrating in that way.

It can definitely help to get seizure control as early as possible in order to prevent the brain from getting in the habit of seizing. Two years of seizure control is a good start, and it's certainly worth trying the taper to see if your son can go med-free. At the same time, it's also a good idea to pay close attention to how he does. At the first sign of any kind of seizure-like sensation, let the neuro know. It's a good idea to let his school know as well (if they don't already), since his teachers and classmates may also be able to pick up on things. If your son will be playing any sports with concussion risks, the coaches should be aware of his history as well.

 

[Mom1998]

Thats what im afraid of weaning him off his meds and him having a gran mal seizure. its really stressing me out, we were gonna wean him off this summer and now im afraid because he will be home alone.

 

[Nakamova]

Ask the neurologist about doing an EEG during and/or immediately after the taper process to see if abnormal brainwaves are still appearing.

 

[JaneC]

Hi Mom1998. Great advice from Nak as usual. I'd definitely encourage my daughter to try coming off her meds if she had been seizure-free for that length of time. I suppose there is a risk of your son having some kind of seizure if he comes off, whether it be of the same kind as before or something new, but as Nak says, at the first sign of trouble you can rethink. I think it'd be a shame for your son to be on meds if he doesn't really need them.