please help me understand - Epilepsy Message Board

levi'smum · 08-14-2007, 06:31 PM

hello my son is 2 and a half and been diagnosed with epilepsy in april this year. his epilepsy comes along with his cerebral palsy. just wondering if any one could please tell me what type of seizures my son has?? he has seizures in his sleep exactly 10mins after falling asleep it starts with one hand (can be any side) twitching then a couple of mins his elbow starts jerking then i give his medazolam at 5 mins and he opens his eyes and what ever side is affected that side of his mouth will twitch and the eye is only half open!!! his seizures last no less then 10mins and he just had his second episode this week of a 2 hour seizure and almost stopped breathing. the hard thing with my son is due to his cerebral palsy he is unable to speak so he cannot tell me is he feels weird before hand and how he feels after!! for the first few months we could pick when he was going to have one for he was over excited then tired then grumpy he would go off to sleep and it would happen. but now days he can be perfectly fine stept good at lunch(overtiredness and lack of sleep brings them on) eat well nice and calm so we feel ok and bam 10mins after he is sleeping it happens?? what can cause seizures to just happen??? do they have to have a trigger?? my son is on epilem tegrotol and lamictal at the moment and still having seizures how long does it take to controll them and is there a possibility of them not stopping with medication??? i have read that people can hear everything that is going on around them so should my son be able to hear me speak to him??? its only when he is having a seizure and he hasnt come out of it when the ambulance gets to our house his seizutres seem to be prolonged, its like they stress him out so much that the seizure wont stop but if he has come out of his seizure before ambulance gets to our place he is fine..... help would be great i would like to know all i can for my son... like i said he cannot tell me...thankyou meggie

bevin 30 · 08-21-2007, 12:23 PM

to levi's mum
sounds as though your son may have a grand or petit mal seizure or may tonic clonic. ask a neurologist to explain in plain english what each one of those seizures is and what signs and symptoms come along with each type of those seizures. typically a medicne like the tegretol and lamictal you mentioned take 2 or 3 months to start to work depending on the person because the body needs to get used to the medicines to build up to the maintenance dose. what that means is that the medicine builds up in your sons blood stream to a point that the body can handle the set amount of micrograms or milligrams prescribed by the doctor. most seizures do have a trigger. yes your son can hear you even if he can not respond the way he would seeing the challenges he overcomes with the cerebalpalsy.talk to him when he is having as seizure he will understand you. In a seizure if it lasts long it is because the brain signals or chemicals have not been given the opportunity to shut off. the constant over functioning of your sons brain chemicals is what causes the brain to get tired and gives a message to fall asleep. Overtiredness and lack of sleep would be two symptoms to look out for when looking for signs of a seizure starting. Sometimes not eating well and dizzyness are also a sign of a seizure starting. try to look up the term epilepsy on your home computer and look up for an epilepsy foundation where you live to look for an explination of different types of seizures and symptoms that go along with each type. If need be ask your sons neurologist about your sons symptoms and the issues he has been having both with the meds and with fact that he has seizures when sleeping and how long it is after he falls asleep that he has a seizure. bevin