Just 3 4 Seizures A Year example essay topic

Siezures Wisdom GENERALIZED TONIC-CLONIC - (also called Grand Mal) Sudden cry, fall, rigidity, followed by muscle jerks, shallow breathing or temporarily suspended breathing, bluish skin, possible loss of bladder or bowel control, usually lasts a couple of minutes. Normal breathing then starts again. There may be some confusion and / or fatigue, followed by return to full consciousness. Comments: Protect head from injury.

Turn on side to keep airway clear. Don't restrain ABSENCE - (also called Petit Mal) A blank stare, beginning and ending abruptly, lasting only a few seconds, most common in children. May be chewing movement of the mouth. Child is unaware of what's going on during the seizure but quickly returns to full awareness once it has stopped. May result in learning difficulties if not recognized and treated. Comments: No first aid necessaryDaydreamingLack of attention SIMPLE PARTIAL Jerking may begin in one area of body, arm, leg or face.

Can't be stopped but patient stays awake. Jerking may proceed from one area of the body to another, and sometimes spreads to become a convulsive seizure. Partial sensory seizure may not be obvious to an onlooker. Patient experiences a distorted environment. May see or hear things that aren't there, may feel unexplained fear, sadness, anger or joy. May have nausea, experience odd smells, and have a generally 'funny' feeling in the stomach.

Comments: Acting out bizarre behaviorHysteriaCOMPLEX PARTIAL - (also called Psychomotor or Temporal Lobe) Usually starts with blank stare, followed by chewing followed by random activity. Person appears unaware of surroundings. May seem dazed and mumble. Unresponsive. Actions clumsy, not directed.

May pick at clothing, pick up objects, try to take clothes off. May run, appear afraid. May struggle. Once pattern established same set of actions usually occur with each seizure. Lasts a few minutes, but post-seizure confusion can last substantially longer. No memory of what happened during seizure period.

Comments: Drunkenness Guide gently away from obvious hazards Don't shout Don't restrain ATONIC SEIZURES - (also called Drop Attacks) A child or adult suddenly collapses and falls, after ten seconds to a minute recovers, regains consciousness and can stand and walk again. Comments: Clumsiness Normal childhood 'stages " In a child, lack of good walking skillsMYOCLONIC SEIZURES Sudden brief, massive muscle jerks that may involve the whole body or parts of the body. May cause person to spill what they were holding or fall off a chair. Comments: Clumsiness Poor coordination INFANTILE SPASMS These are clusters of quick, sudden movement that start between three months and two years.

If a child is sitting up, the head will fall forward, and the arms will flex forward. If laying down, the knees will be drawn up, with arms and head flexed forward as if the baby is reaching for support. Comments: Normal movements of the babyColicYour daughter either needs more or a supplement or replacement w / another drug. My daughter has been on phenobarbital for over 6 years.

She got pretty good control but it required humongous amounts of the drug (about 130 mg per ml each night). It became apparent to us last year that the phenobarbital was delaying her developmental progress. She is now on & we are in the process of slowly weaning her off the phenobarbital. Already she is starting to become more alert. For us personally, breakthrough seizures are not acceptable, especially since it usually means Angel lands in the hospital.

She is on 2 tablets in the a. m. & 2 in the p. m. of (25 mg per tablet) The nero selected based on her EEG and the fact that has relatively few side effects as compared to many other drugs. My daughter is now 14 months old. She is about 12 1/2 lbs. She started w / blinking also - we didn't do anything about that. It was periodically.

Then had seizure where right side started thrashing (associated w / high fever). She was given Ativan at the hospital to stop it. No regular meds yet b / c it was her first one. Next seizure, same thing w / right side moving - given Valium - (too much and had to be intubate d!

). Again, seizure was fever related and docs did not put her on any meds. After her third febrile seizure, (she had an ear infection and high fever) she was put on phenobarbital (3 mg. 2 x per day). Has been on it for 6 weeks. Doc said to start reducing it.

We took it down to 2.5 mg. She had another seizure and a fever of 103. She is now back on it at a dose of 3.3 mg. 2 x per day. Everything A-OK for now.

We just really have to monitor her - fevers, colds, etc. She also has been teething which we were told caused the high fever and had. My daughter was put on when she was 9 months old for seizures after her second seizure. Her first was brought on by an allergic reaction to the P part of the DPT vaccine (old version). She was death gray with the first one and scared me to death.

Her second seizure was out of the blue she was not ill at the time. She was started on a low dose of at the time. Her third seizure was a month later with a temp of 107 degrees. Yes you read right. The heat index was 110 that day and she almost got that high. The neurologist that we met with the 3 seizure wrote her a prescription for air conditioning and Medicaid ended up paying for the unit for her.

I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this done but I managed it. They increased her dose and it took 3 people to give her the nasty tasting liquid she weighed just under 10 pounds but was she ever strong. She was having as many as 50 seizures everyday by the time she was a year old. The doctors added Tegretol which did absolutely nothing then they added Depakene to her regimen and getting rid of the Tegretol and eventually the. She had pretty good control except for with illness. When the liver enzymes went from good to bad her doctor changed her back to she was around 3 when this happened.

She still had good control except for with illness. I can remember times being on the phone with the doctor and telling him I could feel her temp going up it was rising so quickly. She was on the for about 4 years and we took her off to see how she would do without the medication she developed by leaps and bounds once she was off and she could actually fall asleep for a nap during the day and would still go to bed that night. She hadn't been able to sleep during the day since she was about 3 because the made her so hyper.

The doctor tried her on Tegretol when the seizures returned and with each seizure he would increase her dose by 1/2 a tablet within 4 months of starting the Tegretol she was so toxic she was seizing one after the other for about a day and a half. The doctor then added Dilantin and within a week she was toxic on that as well and was hospitalized for almost a week. It was at that time I met the dumbest doctor in the world. He asked me a 2: 00 in the morning if I wanted to take her home. This was after 8 seizures since 6: 00 that night.

I looked at him and had a few choice words that weren't very nice needless to say the entire ER heard what I had to say to the idiot. Then I lost faith in one of the peas that Sunday who didn't run any drug levels on her and tried sending her home. She couldn't even sit up hold her head up walk nothing. I looked at the nurse who came in to tell me that the doctor was dismissing her and I said I am not taking her anywhere there is something desperately wrong with her. She got all huffy with me and went and called the doctor. My ped came into see her at noon on Monday and he took one look at her and knew what was wrong.

Then he called MINCEP to get her in right away. MINCEP was the best money I and the insurance company spent. She has had 3 grand mal seizures in 6 1/2 years. She did develop a drop seizure in December or so I started seeing them and we went back to MINCEP and the doctor had me increase her dose and they have all disappeared now as well. She is on a pretty hefty dose of Depakote Sprinkles she gets 250 mg in the morning and 375 at night. Her levels run around 105-120 which is high, but she is seizure free and the Depakote doesn't slow her down any developmentally.

No doctor can guarantee that your child won't have any more seizures. If you aren't comfortable taking her off the meds then I wouldn't do it or get another opinion. I personally don't like Phenobarb because of the negative side effects it had on her. Some children do quite well on it and others don't. My daughter had pretty good control, but was also slowed developmentally because of the drug and was so hyper while on it that I had to really keep on my toes and couldn't even take a break with a couple of shut eye minutes. Many children do outgrow febrile seizures, my daughter has not all of her grand male are febrile now and she is 14 her seizure threshold has gotten higher over the years she can tolerate temps up to 103 now, but when she was little a temp of 100 could send her into a seizure.

She also seized if I was too stressed out. I was a student for most of her first 5 years of life and I triggered a few seizures before we figured out what was going on. Her ped would put her in the hospital when it came to finals weeks and a couple of times during mid-terms just so I wouldn't trigger a seizure. I got through finals that way and she didn't seize.

It isn't an easy decision to remove a drug and shouldn't be taken lightly. Make sure you have a clear plan of action with your doctor as to what you and he will do if she seizes again. I would make sure everything is written out and available to you to take to the hospital should your daughter start having seizures again if her neuro isn't at the hospital where she would go right away. My best wishes in making your decision.

You need to consider what is best for your daughter there are no guarantees so everything is chance when taking a medication away. Phenobarb has a long half life of 72 hours, I don't know of another drug with that long of a half life. Phenobarb has to be lowered slowly and takes a long time to get rid of it. Some of the kids are taking almost a year to wean off the drug. I think it took only 2 months or a little more to wean my daughter as she was on a pretty low dose compare to what some of the kids are on. Plus I don't think the neurologist I had back then knew what he was doing half the time.

My son was successfully weaned off phenobarbital about 9 1/2 years ago. He had his first seizure at 7 months due to a sudden spike in temperature. He was hospitalized and it was discovered he had viral meningitis. He was put on then and we were told that if he was seizure-free for two years, we could consider getting off the drug. His EEG was normal. When he was 14 months old, he had a second seizure - he had a sudden spike in temperature and his levels were too low.

We upped his meds. I'm sorry that I do not remember the dosage, its was so long ago, but he got a crumbled pill at bedtime. After two years without a seizure, we- his parents and doctors decided to wean him off the meds. I was very apprehensive about this. He had two more seizures during the next two years -both febrile- due to sudden onsets of fever due to ear infections.

His last seizure was when he was 5 1/2 and he did outgrow the febrile seizures. His last EEG was normal- in fact, they " ve all been normal, so we didn't go back on meds. For us it was the right choice. His seizures were short @ 1-2 minutes and he had arm jerking, eyes rolled up in his head and his lips turned slightly blue. As soon as he came out of them, he was crying and then very tired. I don't remember him being lethargic while on the medication and I don't remember any sudden tremendous improvements when he got off it either.

I did notice that after his four seizures, he did make improvement. Almost like the seizure activity triggered something in his brain to learn something new. We saw a pediatric, and he was very nice. He explained that our son was indeed having small seizures each hour and right now he is taking 24 mg of Phenobarb twice per day as well as Depakene 3 times per day. He said that he suspects that he has been on the Phenobarb so long (5 years), that it is now causing these small eye-rolling-absence-head dropping seizures. So, we " ll reduce the Phenobarb over the next 6 months to get him off that and just see how the Depakene works.

If that doesn't help, then we may try Klonopin or Lamictal, but he didn't want to add any new meds until we are off the Phenobarb. He is doing better than he was when I wrote you last about his acting strange and not sitting up, etc. He had been acting sick and I'd take him to the family doctor and they couldn't find anything wrong with him. I bugged his doctor to finally take a CBC and it showed he had an infection somewhere.

Our family doc gave him a shot of antibiotics plus prescribed Augmentin. He is now getting into a sitting position again, playing with toys, smiles, makes sounds, and has slept through the night for 4 days now! Not rolling or scooting yet, , but I think there is reason to believe he " ll get back to that. I am so thankful! I never realized how depressed I would be if he regressed instead of making progress in his development.

My daughter has had seizures since the age of 5 months when she had a reaction to the DPT shot, which she nearly died from. She wasn't put on seizure meds though until she had her 2nd seizure at 9 1/2 months. She was started on Phenobarbitol then, but it didn't control her seizures. She had her 3rd seizure a month later, which was the beginning of daily seizures 40-50 per day.

She was switched from Phenobarbitol to Depakene and later had Tegretol added. The combination of the 2 drugs controlled the seizures fairly well. She would have break through seizures with illnesses and fevers. Any fever of 100 degree would trigger a seizure for her for many years. I learned to treat fevers very aggressively any sign of illness or fever and I would take her to the doctor. She was on the Tegretol and Depakene for about 1 1/2 years before she had trouble with liver enzymes and had to have the medications changed.

She was put back on Phenobarb at around age 3. She was on Phenobarb until November of 1992 when we weaned her off. She was put on Tegretol again in December of 1992 when she started having seizures again. By March of 1993 she had been overdosed on the Tegretol and had to have the dosage reduced and was put on Dilantin which was toxic within 1 week. She saw a specialist in Minneapolis at a clinic called MINCEP. It was here that they changed her to Depakote Sprinkles which she has been on for the last 7 1/2 years.

She takes a large dose of the medication she gets 250 mg in the morning and 375 at night. She had some break through seizures last year that were just minor things, but with an increase in the dose of medication those stopped. She has not had a stat is seizure since August of 1997. For some reason she has a tendency to have bad seizures when I am pregnant. She has had 2 seizures in the last 1 1/2 years both stopped on their own.

The doctors at MINCEP are called Epileptologist and seizures is their specialty. I would consult with someone a little more specialized before starting any seizure meds. There is an 800 number for the MINCEP clinic, but I have misplaced my brochure that it was on. I have posted it many times on the list serve. Another parent has taken her son to the same clinic. My daughter has been on Tegretol for about 14 years.

This seems to work the best at controlling her seizures. She has had fewer and fewer seizures as she gets older. However, when she does have them they are almost always on the first day of her period, and not related to any fever or illness. When she was younger, they were always when she was sick, or needed her dosage increased due to low levels. As she has gotten older (she will be 21 in June) they are not as severe, and do not last as long as they did when she was younger.

I'm not sure if this is because she doesn't get as sick as she used to get, or because the medication she is on works better. Her neurologist has told me that it is not unusual for seizure activity to be associated with your menstrual cycle. Some months she will just have what seems like the beginning of a seizure (an aura) but it never turns into a full blown seizure. Lamictal Possible Adverse Effects: dizziness, headache, diplopia (double vision), blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, anorexia (no appetite), (pain associated with menstruation), rash, and rhinitis (inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose, usually accompanied by swelling of the mucosa and a nasal discharge) Lamictal is a very effective drug for controlling seizures and has to be started at very low amounts gradually increasing them until you get to a therapeutic level or a level of control that works for your child. Slow is the key that seems to work for the kids. The rash is said to have a potential of being fatal but I have heard of very few kids developing a rash that have had the medication introduced slowly.

This was one of the meds that the doctors were considering putting my daughter on until the Gastro doctor nixed that idea since it is processed almost 100% hepatic ally. Her gastro doctor wanted her to not have any drugs that are processed hepatic ally for long periods of time. Slow and low are the keys to this particular drug to begin with. There are several kids in the group on it. The clonus phase of a seizure is when the body goes through the rhythmic 'jerky' motions, tics, spastic motions or however you want to describe it. My daughter had blood drawn for the several weeks ago.

Her platelet count is low and her creatinine level is up. The dr. wants to redo the blood work hoping that is the problem. I remember at least one person whose child was on Depakene / Depakote having the problem with the platelets. Just wanted a little 4 P- input on the problem to share with the Drs. if necessary. On Friday the blood work will be done for the -- he is also ordering a Depakote level and liver panel so if the Depakote is the problem the neurologist can be consulted and have the information without sticking her again!! She was on Depakene for about 8 years -- she was switched to Depakote about a year ago.

My daughter takes Neurontin for her seizures and has them 100% controlled now. When she was Grants age that was not the case. She was on the same combo of meds another child is on plus she had been on Tegretol and Pheno just Pheno barb and Just Depakote. Pheno didn't work at all for her at that young age. I would ask about trying the Neurontin with him it comes in a liquid form and doesn't require any blood work to be done with it. There are a couple of other kids on it and I think they are doing just as well with it.

I wanted to let you know what my daughter is on and how we deal with repetitive seizure activity. When you say mild seizures I assume they are still grand mal he just comes out of them with ease. She is on Lamictal 25 mg at breakfast and dinner and 37.5 mg of it at lunch. She gets 15 mg at breakfast and 22.5 mg at dinner. We thought we would be able to grow out of the but her growth is so little that we are going to have to keep her on the for awhile. She tends to have a seizure when she is tired. usually in the mid to late afternoon around when she should usually nap.

If you have them between 11 and 1 I would try to get him down for a nap around then if you are not already doing so and see how this helps. Also are you taking the meds periodically throughout the day or is all at the same time. We like her taking it through out the day it seems to control them better. My daughter used to have the type of seizures you are talking about. I would consider these mild, but I think another mom is talking about something I bit stronger. Personally, I consider a seizure mild if it stops without medication or if it stops within 30 minutes.

I'm not sure what everyone else thinks. We have an appointment with our daughter's Neuro on Friday. She wants to slowly take her off of the Phenobarb and replace it with Depakote. She has been on the her entire life, and the only seizure she has had in about 7 yrs was 2 yrs ago when we tried to get her off of the without replacing it with anything else. She had to be life flighted and we almost lost her.

I am absolutely terrified to make this switch, but I know many of you have done this and I was wondering if your kids had an increase in seizures during the transition or any info you can supply me with. I really don't want her off of the Phenobarb since we know it works for her, but I understand that there are long term effects from this med. I would ask your Neurologist about some of the newer drugs like Lamictol, Neurontin, Topamax, Kep pra. Depakote has some nasty side effects also.

If the weaning process is done very slow it seems to work better. It has for Lea and we have weaned many times and introduced new drugs many times. This last time it took a year and a half to introduce the Lamictol and wean from the Depakene. If you are worried, ask about a hospital stay as the process begins. They did that once for my daughter and for a friends daughter during the process to keep the child safe and close to medical help. To my knowledge there is only one side effect which can be deadly, and is only present when the is given suddenly and not in small doses.

You just want to start out small and work your way up. My son is young so he won't need that much to work up to. My daughter also had a severe seizure following the MMR shot at 15 months old. It lasted several hours followed by a respiratory arrest in which she had to be intubate d and put on the respirator for 2 days. I chose to do no further shots until she was 13 (now 17) and she has absolutely no further problems at all. Puberty has changed all that!!

We do flu shots every year. She is rarely ever ill now with 'normal' illnesses, just 3-4 seizures a year now..