Hello- I am new to your site but was hoping it may help me answer some questions about my daughter. About a year ago she told me her face felt funny (she is 5). I asked her to try to explain it to me and I thought she was describing eye twitching. I told her it happens very often and not to worry but when/if it happened again to please come and tell me. After a couple more misses (tv was too important to get up) she came and got me. By this time we had statred to call them her "bumbles". I tried to stay calm as my little girl stood in front of me while one side of her face spasmed out of control. It was pulling and twitching from the corner of her mouth to her forehead. I told her it was fine, gave her a hug and sat her back down as I ran to my bedroom and called the pediatrician. After a few more episodes over about a years time, I had them refer me to a neurologist. We have had an abnormal EEG and a normal MRI. They put her on meds the same day they got the EEG results which they told me indicated seizures. She has since had 2 more episodes. When I was finally able get in to see the neurologist he said he wasn't sure she was having seizures. He wanted to read the EEG himself. He was hinting that it may be tics. My question is, can tics be this severe and do tics cause abnormal EEG results? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

UPDATE: Just got a call from the nurse at neuro office. Dr looked at EEG and determined that she is having seizures. He diagnosed her with Benign Rolandic Epilepsy. He wasn't sure what her facial spasms were due to the fact that with BRE the seizures should mostly be coming at night. I'm not 100% sure about his diagnosis. We are prob going to get a 2nd opinion. Any recommendations at Childrens in Boston?

Hi concernedmom,

Welcome to the forum! I will let you know that tics cam affect the nervous system in different ways and in some cases lead to seizures. The twitching in your daughters face is a type of motor seizure when the nerves are out of control do to to much electrical activity in the brain. This often happens to me before I have a complex partial seizure. Try putting your daughter on vitamin B12 once a day keep her away from anything with nutra sweet in it and start keeping track of her seizures. Keep a calendar of her seizures writing down the time the seizures happen along with a discription by doing this the neuro will be able to see a possible pattern in her seizures.
Mass. General Hospital is a good hospital for you daughter to go to she should see an Epileptologist (Dr. specializing in epilepsy) at there Epilepsy Center. If you don't want to go there find a University Hospital that has an Epilepsy Center with an Epileptologist they will help you more than a neurologist. Request that a DNA test be done on your daughter because that test will show what AED's (anti epilepsy drug) will work the best for her with the least side effect. If you daughter is having seizures when she goes to bed or when she first gets up in the morning she may be having myoclonic seizures because these seizures happen only at this time of the day or night. Hormones changing cause some people to have seizures and nothing can be done. Each month when some women go through their monthly cycle this will cause seizures because the estrogen level is high and the progesterone level is low. Stress and lack of sleep are the 2 main things that trigger seizures for a person so be sure your daughter gets plenty of rest. It's also been proven the certain color lights can trigger seizures as well as cell phones. I wish you and your daughter the best of luck and May God Bless You both!

Sue

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come, just let us know if we can be of any help. Fell free to just jump in any where.

There are great number of fellow members here to assist as possible. My thoughts and prayers are with you. I will agree with what Sue said, but one other thing is when you at the theater watch for the bright fasting lights, this will cause a seizure. Just have her cover and shut her eyes.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene