A new normal for our family - Epilepsy Diagnosis

For 3 years, our middle son has had “episodes”. It looks like he zones off, but his eyes roll back and he mumbles. Our pediatrician in FL said he would outgrow them. For 2 years, our pediatrician in NY said to see if the change in climate and lifestyle help. This past August, we spoke with a nurse practitioner about these “episodes”, and finally were referred to a neurologist.

A’s episodes had become more frequent and sometimes had severe headaches follow.

Now it’s time for answers. After meeting with the neurologist & having an EEG, we discovered that these episodes, were in fact, petit mal seizures or absence seizures. We were relived to know what these were and now could help our son treat them. The first medication [Depakote] was started out at a high dose and only made it 5 days before A became ill.

Our next medication, Zarontin, was started out at a low dose and seemed to have been working. His seizures became less frequent. Then it changed. A slept over at a friends house and I picked him up early because he, his brothers and his Dad were going to see the new Star Wars movie. We picked up Dunkin and in a great mood.
Unfortunately, A had a seizure walking up the stairs and spilled 1 (of 3) drinks and became highly agitated with himself. After all was cleaned up, I went to his room to let him know that no one was mad & that he can’ be upset with himself. We never know when these will hit him.
While talking to him, he had a Convulsive seizure or Grand Mal Seizure. Then after that ended and me telling him about it and him denying he had one, he had another.
These were very scary and I am so happy I was there with him when they occurred.
After the seizures ended, I sat with him and calmed him. After some time, he ate & showered. The afternoon went along as planned and no more seizures occurred.

I spoke with his neurologist and gave them the timeline of the weekend. It seems that the lack of sleep, agitation, and increased stress had brought on the convulsive seizure. Because of his full body reaction, they deduced it was a generalized convulsive seizure, meaning both sides of the brain were affected.

For now, we’ve begun another new medication [Keppra] that is supposed to help both types of seizures (absence & convulsive) and he will slowly stop taking the Zarontin.

After all of the tests and speaking with the neurologist, A has been diagnosed with Epilepsy.

This is so very new to us and we are taking each day at a time. I do a lot of reading about Epilepsy, medications, and what he may be able to expect out of life.

Thankfully, he is an otherwise healthy, smart, social, and sassy teenager.