Siezures

[anon4now]

I've heard comments about their child having seizures that cause outburts and behavior issues. What are these seizures, how do you test for them, and does anyone have experience with them?

TIA

Anon

[jj]

Anon,

I don't know a lot about how they test for seizures but I do know that a MRI, EEG, or CAT of the brain may indicate seizure activity.

I know also that sometimes what parents think is their child not paying attention is actually absense seizures.

Also, my X husband had Grand Mal seizures and I can tell you this. After the seizure was over ALWAYS he would have this freak out thing where he though people were after him. I had to be very careful to lock all doors because he was like a raging bull trying to get away. One time he did get out of the door clad only in his underware and I remember running down the street after him.........oh, my gosh...I'm sure the neighbors thought we were lunitics. Anyway, his after freak out was always the same each and every time...thinking someone was after him. Very difficult to witness.

I understand each person is different and can have after affects that are totally different - like rage or anger.

Sorry, I can't be more help.

[alyssasmom]

I am all too experienced with seizures, although my daughter does not have seizures that include rage. I can tell you the best place for information on the web for information about seizures is www.epilepsyfoundation.org

First I would document everytime your child experiences behavior and/or rage issues. Explain what happens before, what happens during and after. Take these concerns to your pediatrition, or family physician. Your child should have an EEG done. This is where they put electrodes all over your child's head and note any brain activity. Just to alert you though, 70% of all EEG's can be completely normal.

CAT scans can rule out any tumors, but an MRI is a much better tool to look at the whole brain in sections.

www.epilepsy.com is also a place to go for information concerning seizures.

I wish you luck, and hope that you find some answers.

[anon4now]

I heard of mal petite (maybe) siezures. Unfortunately at my work, they sort of caught me online, and so I have to scale it back a whole lot, so I can't research this stuff anymore except on weekends, and that's when the kids are all up in my face, so = no time for mom.

My son had expereinced some black outs, where he was aware and awake, but his eyes went black. He did that for 4-6 hours but only for one day. And then he had some black outs where he wasn't aware of anything around him, and the kids around him noticed a change in his posture, but he never fell over or anything. And then he's got diabetes, so if his sugar drops too low, that could cause siezures, but much more violent and he would just need sugar to fix it. (either drink juice, or if he's trashing a shot of glucgon.) But then there are times when he's under extreme stress, he'll report later that he blacked out for a second. And there are times under this same stress that he just flips out. So I'm wondering if stress could cause a siezure that would trigger a black out and/or anger, rage type issue.

I'm grasping at straws. I'm just speculating, and using some of the pieces of info I have heard out there, but wasn't wholly interested in because I didn't think it pertained to me.


I'll try to get some research time in soon,

Anon

[alyssasmom]

Many people think that a person that is having a seizure always falls over. My daughter has only had one Tonic/Clonic Seizure, what they used to call Grand Mal. Her seizures are now more sensory based. She has Olfactory Hallucinations, where she smells something really bad, that no one else can smell. She has seizures where she feels like she is going to vomit, including salivating and running to a trash can, that last for only a minute or two.

This week, her right hand shook so hard, it woke her up. It only lasted a minute or two. She has twitching in her sleep, that may or may not be seizure activity.

There are only a few seizure types, but they can happen (manifest) differently (100's of ways) in each person.

Simple partial seizures involve only one part of the brain. Complex partials involve more than one area, and typically the person is not aware of their surroundings, or altered in such a way that they seem to be taking in their surroundings, but are just acting very "off".

Some Complex partials will generalize to the whole brain. They call this Complex partials that Secondarily Generalize.

Blanking out, can also be called Absence Seizures. (This is a French word that is said, Absawnce, not the way that we say absent...) When a person has Absence seizures, it actually involves the entire brain, and is a Generalized Epilepsy.

If a person is having seizures, and is undiagnosed, the seizures will create pathways through the brain, and can actually make more seizures come on. The seizures can become worse and much harder to treat with medication.

Also know, that 70% of all epilepsy patients are completely treated by the first medication they are on. With that being said, medications are very individual, so it is a game of trial and error, and can involve waiting a period of time before knowing if it is going to work.

If there are any questions I can answer, or help you research, I would be more than happy to help you.