Hi everyone.
I've just signed up as a parent of a possibly epileptic child and wanted to say " hi".
Natalie is three and had her first seizure about a month ago and quickly accelerated to three per day plus some during her sleep. Before that I had been at our doctors a couple of times because for the past 4-6 months her behavior has been hideous. The Terrible Twos had moved into the Violent Threes and now she was having tantrums all day with kicking, scratching, biting, and she was intolerable at home and at daycare because her attention span dropped down to zero. She just couldn't play anymore and spent the day roaming looking for someone to hurt. I had seen her arms twitch a couple of times and told our doctor, so when she had a really obvious seizure it was almost a relief that maybe we had a reason for all this vile behavior. She has myclonic jerks, absence seizures, tonic-clonic seizures, and atypical seizures - so many different names it gets confusing!!
Anyway, we've just spent two weeks in hospital having EEGs, Spinal taps, MRI and blood and urine work. We are awaiting results to find out if this is epilepsy or a more sinister disease at work. The doctors are checking all possibilities because of the extreme behavior. Her EEG showed generalized spikes every few seconds even when she wasn't visibly having a seizure.We are hoping that she is just exhausted from night seizures that I suspect have been happening for a while (she often wakes during the night crying or screaming) and that sleep deprivation has caused the behavior.
She has an epileptic grandfather so to me it seems likely she inherited it but the doctors want to be sure. There are a number of illnesses that cause seizures plus behavior change. I made the mistake of searching for one of the illnesses they are checking her for: Batten disease. They have tested her for that and we have 6 weeks wait to find out results. It is fatal and has freaked me out. I don't know if many people would say "I hope my kid has epilepsy" but for us we are praying that she does, because the alternatives are too frightening to even consider.
I've just signed up as a parent of a possibly epileptic child and wanted to say " hi".
Natalie is three and had her first seizure about a month ago and quickly accelerated to three per day plus some during her sleep. Before that I had been at our doctors a couple of times because for the past 4-6 months her behavior has been hideous. The Terrible Twos had moved into the Violent Threes and now she was having tantrums all day with kicking, scratching, biting, and she was intolerable at home and at daycare because her attention span dropped down to zero. She just couldn't play anymore and spent the day roaming looking for someone to hurt. I had seen her arms twitch a couple of times and told our doctor, so when she had a really obvious seizure it was almost a relief that maybe we had a reason for all this vile behavior. She has myclonic jerks, absence seizures, tonic-clonic seizures, and atypical seizures - so many different names it gets confusing!!
Anyway, we've just spent two weeks in hospital having EEGs, Spinal taps, MRI and blood and urine work. We are awaiting results to find out if this is epilepsy or a more sinister disease at work. The doctors are checking all possibilities because of the extreme behavior. Her EEG showed generalized spikes every few seconds even when she wasn't visibly having a seizure.We are hoping that she is just exhausted from night seizures that I suspect have been happening for a while (she often wakes during the night crying or screaming) and that sleep deprivation has caused the behavior.
She has an epileptic grandfather so to me it seems likely she inherited it but the doctors want to be sure. There are a number of illnesses that cause seizures plus behavior change. I made the mistake of searching for one of the illnesses they are checking her for: Batten disease. They have tested her for that and we have 6 weeks wait to find out results. It is fatal and has freaked me out. I don't know if many people would say "I hope my kid has epilepsy" but for us we are praying that she does, because the alternatives are too frightening to even consider.
