A couple weeks ago, I posted that Nate's speech therapist mentioned him "zoning out" and asked if he had seizures. His teacher's aid had asked me the same thing a few weeks earlier, so I decided we needed to get this checked out.
Nate has had these zone out spells since he was a baby. At one time, I was concerned enough about it to ask a therapist and his former pediatrician, and they didn't seem worried so I stopped worrying about it. But I see him doing it fairly often. We'll be in the middle of something, and he just spaces out. Sometimes it looks like he's thinking about something or trying to listen to something going on across the room. His eyes don't do anything funny, and he often continues moving while it's going on, so that's another reason I didn't think it was seizures.
We went to the pediatrician today, and he said what I had described sounds just like "absence seizures," formerly known as petit mal seizures. I looked it up online when I got home, and it does sound very similar to what Nate does. The good news I found was that children usually outgrow them and they don't cause brain damage. But they can cause trouble in school if he spaces out several times during class, and he could have a hard time concentrating on anything.
I am still not entirely convinced that he is having seizures, but I'm glad we're getting it checked. The next step is to have an EEG (as in glue in the hair and wires attached to the head) next Friday at the children's hospital. We have to keep him up until 10-12 the night before and wake him up at 4 am!!!! Then be at the hospital at 7:30. During the test, they'll do some sort of flashing lights and make him breathe out and sort of hyperventilate to try to induce a seizure. Depending on the results, the next step will probably be for him to see a neurologist. Oh joy! We get to add yet another specialist to the list! Apparently having a neurosurgeon isn't enough, we also have to have a neurologist. I have gotten a couple of glowing recommendations for a Dr. Puri in town, but it might take longer than we want to wait to get in to see him.
I guess these seizures are usually treated with medication to decrease their frequency so the child can concentrate and not continually zone out of life. I wonder if this could be at all related to Nate having mild hydrocephalus and no shunt and if he would need a shunt placed. But I'm not really thinking any further ahead than the EEG, since there's no use worrying about something that might never happen.
Anyway, on to more fun updates. Yesterday, Mindy and I took the kids to their first movie! I have been wanting to take Nate to see the Chipmunks movie, but it was sold out! So instead we saw the Princess and the Frog. It was quite an adventure getting us all there and situated, but it was fun too. Nate was enjoying his popcorn and the "really big TV." About 2/3 through the movie, he started getting restless and sleepy, and then Georgia woke up from her nap (yep, slept right through the movie), and Mindy and I got the kids out of there before they started to revolt. All in all, it went better than I expected! :) Now I need to add that movie to our netflix queue so we can see how it ends.
I also need to add a funny story I forgot to write in my last post about Christmas dinner. Nate is still confused about pronouns and refers to women as "he" and "him" and the opposite for men. So we were eating Christmas dinner, and Nate was sitting beside my dad. Nate reached over and patted my dad's arm and said, "Pop ... you're a good girl." I still laugh thinking about it! It was very sweet, just not quite correct. :)
3 comments:
Our EEG was a waste of time. It will not pick anything up unless he has one while hooked up...they even did the light thing with Autumn and NOTHING. Although we already know she has seizures since she does the shaking but I figured an EEG would be able to show more. I don't understand the reason for the test myself in Autumn's case since she was already on medication for them. *sigh*
hey colleen, we had an eeg too, last month. we didnt follow the late to bed early to rise deal and it was ok. they just want them to be drowsy so they stay still. they did the flashing light thing too. we got a "she is prone to seizures" report which doesnt tell us much! i think she has them in her sleep though so we may have to do a sleep one. good luck, Im sure that little cute Nate will do awesome and you can tell him he is a good girl too! too funny!!
Thanks for your comments, ladies. I know with Nate, he is more likely to do his zoning out thing when really tired. Like this morning. So maybe he'll actually do it while they're doing the test? That might be too much to ask for. :)
Post a Comment