4 year old prescribed ethosuximide - Epilepsy Message Board

gagcas · 10-25-2003, 12:16 PM

i just found out yesterday that my 4 year olds EEG showed seizure activity. i have no idea what i am supposed to be doing now. ill start from the begining so this mught be a little long, since this is my first time on here. when gage was 2 he used to have these terrible fits, i mean screaming fits in the middle of the night that sometimes lasted 1-1 1/2 hours. nothing would calm him down. i have heard of them refered to as night terrors. i didnt think anything of it. when he hit about 4 he would have these rage fits, especially if he was being dicipled, to the opoint that he would kick, throw, try to destroy anything thatw as in his way. nothign would curb this. we tried time out everything. he then started blinking real hard like he had something in his eye and squinting, daydreaming, we though it was his eye sight going bad, and had him checked out for that. came up with nothing. eventually i had a talk with his dr because i had nothing else to try and was getting so upset that i thought i was gonna hurt him because i was getting so angry at his tempers. we evwen looked into anger managment. on a 4 year old!!!!
after talking with her she had us do a CAT scan and an EEG test to look for the possibilities of seizures. and the EEG came back positive. he was prescribes ethosuxmide and after doing a search on it i found it was prescribed for petit mal seizures. has anyone been throguh this type that could give me some insite as to what is going on. im scared and have no clue what i should be doing right now. he has to take this meds 3 times a day but i dont know if this will last forever or what. does he need a medical ID bracelet. help!!!!! i hate to think my baby has a life long illness, and im wondering if my 1 year old will come down with it too!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by gagcas (edited 10-25-2003).]

mommy4 · 10-25-2003, 05:38 PM

gagcas.oh my goodness you sound like what i am going through with my youngest daughter..my daughter just started showing signs of seizures.about six months ago i had her at the dr....for the same thing screaming fits throwing things,kicking scratching the whole 9yards.and they told me it was night terrors also but i didn't buy it.....i have epilepsy and so does 3 of my children and 1 being tested so i wasn't convinced it was night terrors....but i followed what the dr said and treated it as such.....well she is in preschool and her teacher told me that she was noticing her spacing off and they wouldn't be able to snap her out of it for a couple of minutes....so i took her to the dr...they scheduled an eeg and she had that yesterday..and we are waiting for the results....so my best advise is go with your gut instinct . as far as the meds they put your child on i can't give no info or advise on it cause i never heard of that med...take care and i hope all goes well with your child......hope to talk to you soon.....-

gagcas · 10-26-2003, 04:21 AM

mommy4.....thank you for writing back. i was so excited to find this board and be able to talk to people going through the same things. i hope everything goes ok with the EEG. im just a little scared right now because i know nothing about this disease. and i should. those "night terrors" were horrible. he would scream and flop and kick for a good hour and it was everynight. not the best time for us. his episodes dont last but for a few seconds unles he is throwing a temper tantrm. but now i dont know if its the tantrum or the epilepsy. hope they call for the neaorologist appt. soon. then i can learn more. talk to you all soon

JanieS · 10-26-2003, 12:25 PM

Hi,
I'm new to this website too. I have a different type of seizures but I've reading everything I can get my hands on about seizures. The antiseizure drugs are terrible to be on, but the one good thing is that at least with the type of disorder your 4 year old has, kids sometimes outgrow it.

I was recently diagnosed too and I think this has got to be the worst time. I'm hoping that with time, it'll just be something that's part of my life and not so terrible. My experience is that my medications have completely controlled my seizures. I hope for the same for your child.

My Aley · 10-26-2003, 12:57 PM

Hang in there!! Your son sounds like my daughter as well!! She has those fits too!! And, it seemed they would get worse if she was in trouble for something. It's like, nothing was right for her, she would have "bad days" where she was so irritable and all a sudden she was screaming and throwing anything in her way, kicking doors and anything she could. She would also lay on the floor kicking and screaming, tossing her head from side to side and no matter how loud we were to her, telling her to stop.......no response!! It was like she was worked up beyond her controll and we would just leave her be and let her do it. She would do this in public, at home, a little at the Dr's office...especially if she needed a shot or bloodwork. She would do this though and vomit afterwards. She would also drewl...we used to say we have the only 4 year old that still drewls!! We didn't know until I took her to the Dr, thinking she had a behavioral problem....he said it was a temporal lobe seizure. She has Petit Mals, Absense, Partial Focal and Complex Focal Seizures. No one in my family has had any seizures....epilepsy is not found anywhere! But, somehoe she has it. Aley takes 200mg of Tegretol.....they are slowly increasing her med, starting on Wednesday she will be taking 300mg/day and then week 3 she will be on 450mg. Does your child have any side affects? We just found out she had epilepsy on the 21st. But, she had some when she was 2 and a half.....but, looking back, I think she was having them much earlier whe she would "space out" and my Mom would ask me what was wrong, I thought she was just tired. We have had 2 years of hell though, flying everywhere to see Dr's. Since we are in Alaska, there isn't any Dr's here to help her. Now everytime we fly somewhere, she gets worked up and scared. They are moving us to another base in the lower 48 where they can help her and hopefully we can get some answers from the Dr's as well...finally! They just leave us to find the info ourselves!! I think it's much better to come to this site anyways because at least I have learned from people who know this first hand and share their experiences. Wonderful people here!! Welcome!! I am new to this too but, I hope I was able to help you out some. My daughter is also 4, she will be 5 in Dec. I have a 10 month old daughter as well and one on the way!! Yes,it's pretty boring here in Alaska!!! lol I worry about them too. I pray they don't get this also.... Take care and know we are all here for eachother!!
Love, Sandra & Derek