and a few of you wonderful people PMed me and asked me about how he's doing and whatnot. So, a short bit of background: we were in the hospital because my son has had a few seizures, one of which was long enough to be life-threatening (8 minutes). We were referred to a neurologist to try to figure out what the hell was going on. That was where I was (and why my posts from earlier today clearly have Phone Post Problems(omt).) Fortunately, after 9 hours of tests, they came to the definite conclusion: it's called Benign Rowlandic Epilepsy, which basically means "when you are moving into or out of deep sleep, your brain kind of fucks off a bit." It doesn't often lead to seizures -- most often when you've been sleep deprived -- and he'll grow out of it by the time he's 12. Until then, we're going to have to keep a baby monitor kind of thing in his room so that we can hear if it starts happening, and we have some medicine to give him if a seizure lasts more than 3 minutes. He doesn't need any full-time perscriptions (thank God), because it's actually pretty likely that it won't happen again as long as we're dedicated about making sure he gets plenty of sleep. It turns out lots of people have BRE and it never actually results in any seizures. It does, however, result in delayed speech and reading development, which explains why my son is in special preschool for kids that aren't terribly social. Which we look at as a good thing, because it means we aren't actually crappy parents. So, in total, thank you all very much for your concern, but it looks like everything is actually pretty good, all told.
Just ensure that he gets plenty of sleep. He isn't in any trouble otherwise, is he? How far delayed are his developmental milestones? Thank goodness it isn't any more serious. Now that my freakout is finished, I should tell you that I'm just asking this out of professional curiosity. I'm studying as an intern right now and I finish my doctor's degree by next year. My post-graduate focus, if possible, will be in neurological studies, I'm a research-minded type. If you want to keep it private, send a PM if possible or just reply back if you don't want to say anything else. I'm an ethical sort anyway.
No other troubles. His speech was 6 months behind, but after a year of special preschool, he's caught up in terms of vocabulary and grammar -- he just doesn't talk to anyone; it's a socialization problem now more than a speech one. He is, however, still not reading, which is disappointing.
That's a bummer. He isn't reading at all, or can he read but just doesn't want to? It could be that his language comprehension area might be wired ahem, differently as a direct or indirect effect of his seizures. He CAN recognize alphabets and numbers though, right?
It took me until 3rd grade to be open socially to strangers and after a while I opened up pretty nicely.
Glad to hear it didn't turn out to be something worse. Seizures can be very disconcerting when you don't know what is causing them. Even worse if you are a parent.
Oh, wow. Never even heard of something like that. It must have been nerve-wracking for a while. My sympathies.
That sort of seizure is somewhat rare to begin with, and also often asymptomatic in a lot of cases. Don't beat yourself up over it.
I take Phenobarbital every day for my own seizures. What do you give for this type? I have tried nearly everything, but nothing seems to effect mine other than barbiturates. The Phenobarbital has a 72 hour half-life, so it would most certainly be ill suited for occasional use like this. Best wishes. I and everyone else am glad to hear he will grow out of it.
Generally, if it's in a mild form, you don't have to give any treatment beyond general advice on how to manage the condition. Carbamazepine, if required, is the first line of treatment, once or twice a day as warranted. If that doesn't work Phenytoin, Sodium valproate, gabapentin etc. can be tried out. Basically, if one thing doesn't work, try another and see if that works instead. This is more or less the same dictum in any kind of seizure problem.
Huh, this kind of reminds me of my own childhood, except instead of "seizures whenever I fall asleep" it was "lower legs pop out of their sockets at random". Also I had asthma instead of learning problems. Glad to see it's going to end up being about as much of a problem as the stuff I had to deal with.
Oh, yes. He's counting to 40+, knows all the letters, can type his own name ...he just hasn't quite figured out how to read. He believes, for example, that any word starting with a capital G is his name (Giovanni).
At least that's all he has trouble with; a few personality quirks. It's possible he'll outgrow those though.
Glad to hear your son is okay. I wouldn't worry too much about his social issues; I didn't talk to anyone as a young child either, and I eventually grew out of it. I'm no extrovert, but I'm pretty socially aware.
Up until the age of around five or so I was exceptionally quiet. Then for the rest of my life people have been trying everything short of assault with deadly weapons to get me to shut up. People change. Your son will be fine.
I'm glad to hear that you've had some good news and that you know what you're dealing with now. I hope things continue to get better!
Well, glad to hear that it is something so relatively easily remedied. Good luck to you and your son!
