I had a trip to the ER with my son today.

He was taking a shower and lost his vision, panicked because he couldn't see and fell out of the tub. When I got to him he could not move his arms and legs but was sitting on the toilet. His speech was slurred. The last thing he remembers was falling and the next throwing up. He doesn't remember our conversation when his speech was slurred. about 20 or 30 mins later he was bouncing around and fine. They really don't know what happened and he is being referred to a neurologist at the childrens hospital.

Hi lynxgal,
I'm sorry to hear what happened to your son I hope he's doing fine now. I'm no Dr. but what you are describing sounds like it could have been a tonic clonic sz. that your son had. I've found that if the water is to hot when I take a shower it will trigger a sz. for me. If your son is at the age of going through puberty that could be a lot of the problem because the hormones in his body would be changing a lot. You might want to ask your son if he had a headache or felt tired after this happened. This always happened to me after a sz. until I had surgery to reduce my sz. The best thing to do is get an e.e.g. and MRI done on your son and this will show any activity (hopefully there's no problems.) Here's wishing you and your son the best of luck and May God Bless You Both!

Sue

Hi there,
That does sound like a seizure. A simple partial seizure affects your senses and you stay alert. but you can have deja vu, smell something that isn't there, or lose your sense of smell. That goes the same for sight, hearing, and touch. The simple partial seizure is why the famous artist vincent vangough cut off his own ear. A simple partial had him hearing things that weren't there. The grand mal seizures (tonic clonic) make a person fall to the ground and they go into muscle spasms. so because of the muscle spasms the person is bouncing all around amost like a fish out of water. Then there is the complex partial seizure or the petit mal (ansence) seizure. The staring spell is the seizure. But then the person goes into total 100% confusion. That's because the electrical activity in the brain isn't stable yet and is trying to work it's way back to normal. Also sometimes during the confusion, hallucinations can happen. After I had the petit mal seizures in the begining. I would ALWAYS throw up after a seizure. But a few years late that stopped. Epilepsy is a disease of the central nervous system in the brain. So the neurologist is the doctor that's the brain specialist, and a epileptologist is a neurologist that only specializes in epilepsy. I have the seizures because of blunt force trauma to the head wich gave me scaring on my right and left temporal lobes of the brain. The scar tissue is one of the things that causes the brain to produce the abnormal electrical activity. When the electrical activity is abnormal, the seizures start up. Also stress and emotions will start them up.
Sincerely
Shawn33

Thanks for the reply Sue. Yes my son is in puberty (14). At the hospital yesterday they mentioned the possibility of an MRI and because of the wait times here for referrals to specialists we were advised to contact our GP and have him seen within the week.

I spoke to my GP's nurse today and described the incident. The first thing she asked was did they run an EEG and did they mention seizure. They did neither at the hospital. The did an ECG, Neuro exam and checked his blood sugar level. Anyway he is scheduled to see the GP in a couple of days and it sounds like they are going to schedule an EEG.


He was tired most of the day and did end up getting a headache late in the day. I forgot to mention he has been getting migraines since he was 11. This last year they changed to classic with vision loss (same as mine). He said this was different then the migraines. During the conversation with me that he doesn't remember he said, mom this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me and there is something wrong with me.

That kind of freaked me out especially since he does not remember saying it.

Thanks again.

Hi lynxgal,
I'm sorry to hear that your son has to wait to see a neuro. Just like your son I started having migraine headaches when I was 10 yrs. old and that led into absence (petit mal) sz. for me then by the age of 12 I started to have complex partial sz. also. It was a nightmare for me when I was going through puberty because the hormones in my body were changing so much that it caused me to have over 300 sz. a yr. My neuro at the time had me on 5 different AED's dilantin, zarontin, phenobarbital, mysoline, and tegretol and I was out of it I was so drugged up. My advice to you is to keep your son away from anything with nutra sweet in it like diet soda because it's been proven that nutra sweet (aspartame) causes more electrical activity in the brain and can trigger sz. for many people. I found that out the hard way when I started to drink diet soda. Keep a calendar and write down what time your son has any sz. along with a discription of the sz. by doing this the neuro. may see a pattern as to what time of the day/night your son is more likely to have a sz. also take note if it happens while he's using hot water, in front of the computer, or near bright colors. If you notice that he has a sz. when using the computer or looking at bright colors he may be photosensitive which means certain colors are causing him to have sz. When they did a special e.e.g. on me they found that amber, florescent green and bright white like the sun shining on the snow caused me to have sz. You might want to try putting your son on vitamin B12 once a day to help reduce his sz. this has worked great for me. Also cut him back on the starch foods and carbs and start putting him on foods high in fat. If you have ever heard of the ketogenic diet it works great stopping sz. especially for kids I've been using it for a few yrs. and it has helped me a lot plus it helped me lose over 70 lbs. in just 4 months. You can get the book titled "The Epilepsy Diet Treatment" by Dr. John Freeman of Hopkins University. This diet works great for many people and it has been on since 1927 I'm on a lot less AED's since I went on the diet. Take note what the weather is like when your son has a sz. some people will have a sz. when a low pressure is happening and bad weather hits. I have a friend that has many absence sz. when there's a low pressure. I often get headaches when a low pressure hits and the next day I sometimes have a sz. Take note and watch your son to see if he has a daydream expression on his face or if he's wandering around, smacking his lips, or possibly pulling at his clothes. If he has a daydream look he's having an absence sz. but if he's wandering around and smacking his lips he's having a complex partial sz. If his sz. happens when he first gets up in the morning or right after he's gone to bed and he's jerking around it could be a myolconic sz. this happens to me once in awhile and I'm conscious during the entire sz. but I can't control my body with it jerking around for about 3-4 min. and I'm unable to speak. This is a new study but if you or your son get any warning of a sz. get a cool wash cloth and put it on your face and the back of your neck. They have found that it helps cool the brain down and calm the neurons in the brain from firing up and triggering sz. I've been trying it and it works great for me. Sorry to carry on so much. Wishing you and your son the best of luck and May God Bless You Both!

Sue

There are many types of sesiures and many things that can triger them. Some trigers may be only a reaction and if you find the cause then your ok or it could be late onset. My son is epeliptic and has 3 different types. Grand Mal, complex parital, and absent. If he wet him self it was likely a Grand mal but there are other types and it could also be visual migrains but doubtfully since he convulsed. Good luck!

In your first post, I was going to say it sounded like migraine a child member of the family used to get. Then as I read, I said, no... it is more like the seizure-like episodes she very rarely got except she didn't have the vision thing during them, but got vision changes during the migraines. Regardless, the family believes they were intertwined. The fact that we label things the way we do is for man-made convenience. The reality of it is that we have complex neurologies and symptoms do what symptoms do.

Antiseizure medications may help regardless of whether they are migraines or they are seizures. Also, you may look into the possibility of requiring supplements for mitochondrial function as is sometimes helpful in pediatric cases of migraines.

My son saw the Neurologist today and he did talk about seizure after we explained what happened. He is scheduling a sleep deprived EEG. Can anyone give me any info on that...like how long does it take etc?

We also talked about how my son doesn't sleep well and his migraines. He wants us to keep a journal for this migraines etc for the next 3 months and then we will go back for a follow up appointment.

Sorry I have another question or two....I have been thinking about things...when he was a baby he used to spread out all his limbs and go really stiff and it was like he was holding his breath. Then he would start to cry like crazy. This was when he was 2-6 months old. At the time they thought it was bowl craps. Now I'm not so sure.

Then from the age of 4-7 he would sleep walk. We would find him asleep in crazy places in the morning.

Think any of the above is relevant?

Hi lynxgal,
I'm no Dr. but there could be a possibility that your son was having seizures in his sleep, and also when he was 2-6 months old. If you haven't mentioned this to his neuro please be sure and tell him there might be a connection. The brain is the most active when a person is asleep and he could have been having seizures.
In regards to the sleep deprived e.e.g. it usually takes about 1 hour or a little longer. Your son will have to stay up all night and then when he goes to have the e.e.g. done they will put electrodes all over his head with a electrical cream. It doesn't hurt at all. After the electrodes are put on him they will possibly start flashing a strobe light slowly and then faster and faster and this could trigger a seizure. The e.e.g. test will be able to read 8 areas of his brain and if there's any problems they will be able to tell what area of the brain the possible seizures are coming from, there have been cases where the brain damage is in to deep for some people and the e.e.g. can't find any problems if that happens the neuro may want to do more tests. Here's wishing you and your son the best of luck. May God Bless You Both!

Sue

Please, Please , Please, be very careful when talking about epilepsy. I am crippled because of unnecessary Antiepileptic drugs.
The modern way of diagnosing is for an Epileptologist (experienced in epilepsy neurologist) to actually witness a seizure, then to do an EEG test within the hour.
There are many things that can cause seizures that are not epileptic.
Consider: The neurologist prescribes drugs to stop seizures, then the Neurologist runs an EEG test. If drugs have been given to stop the seizures, what does the Neurologist expect to find on the EEG?
The sleep EEG is to try to see any problems whilst the patient sleeps, The brain should be quieter when this is done and any ictal spikes will be more obvious.