Hello, All!
I guess I will start off with myself, maybe that will give some insight to my son?! According to my mom, I was diagnosed with migraines at age 2, because I would complain that my head hurt and end up vomitting. For as long as I can remember, I have had trouble with them When I was about 8, I had a headache and went to lay in my bed (which was on the top bunk) I had my eyes closed and my pillow over my head, then I had to go to the bathroom, so I opened my eyes and was going to slowly get off the bed but to my surprise Icould not see anything but 2 black boxes, one for each eye. I yelled at my mom and she didn't believe me, until I finally tried to get out of bed and fell from the top. She took me to the E.R. they said it was another migraine, but with a different aura gave me a shot and sent me home. In my 31 years of life I have had 13 concussions, from various different events. I have been getting migraines for such a huge part of my life, and after 4 wrecks (none of which were my fault) in 2 years, tons of p.t., meds, and oter things that did not help, I ended up having neck surgery 4-1-2010 and back surgery 7-14-2010! I was having more frequent and severe migraines that lasted anywhere from 3-15 days at a time! None of the migraine meds preventive or remedy have ever really helped, I was in the e.r. one time last year and had 4 shots of dilaudid and 2 shots of phenergan, without relief. We finally found the Demerol and Phenergan help, but at high dose, to make them stop, but nothing to prevent them. They have always been 'hard to treat' for me, 9 times out of 10 I have an aura or more. I have been diagnosed with numerous 'mental' issues (bipolar, anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and my favorite It's all in your head disorder), but when none of the usual meds for these worked to help me, I would then be re-evaluated and rediagnosed with something else and it would start all over. I was to the point to where I was just going to live with all the symptoms, until something happened with my middle child and my youngest child.
Both have been diagnosed with adhd and childhood bipolar, adhd first and when none of those meds helped... Last October, middle child had a seizure 5 days after a car wreck and it was thought to be due from hitting his head in car wreck but they still ran all kinds of tests. After CT and MRI came back normal, he was scheduled for EEG, which showed abnormalities in left frontal lobe and left temporal lobe. We were told to keep an eye on him. He was weaned off all meds and was doing pretty good still. About 5 weeks ago, he had a 2nd seizure ! We were all scared! He went to E.R., next day his pediatrician, the day after to his pediatric neurologist, she put him on Trileptal 300 mg 1.5 tabs 2 times daily (started out with half tab and worked his way up to current dose of 900mg total a day).
I have been doing TONS of research everywhere imaginable. Now I am wondering if possibly my hard to treat migraines with auras have actually been misdiagnosed? Could I possibly have simple partial seizures? Absence siezures? Could the dr. have been wrong back in 1981 when I was diagnosed and that is why I haven't had much success in controlling these horrible things? Could my son maybe have had a seizure issue and not adhd and/or childhood bipolar? If so, why were dr.'s so quick to say adhd, then bipolar, then that he had both? Is it possible that my younger son might have seizure issues too, and not adhd, bipolar, and/or both? Is that why none of the numerous meds and/or combo's of meds that the 3 of us have been on haven't helped very much, if at all? How do I bring the subject up to my neurologist when I go in for an appt. I made because of my concerns about myself? Do I have a right to say that I want and EEG to find out if I have any abnormalities? What about for my youngest son, I would like for him to have an EEG, too?
If anyone has any answers and/or would like some more background info., feel free to ask Thank you in advance for any and all responses! Sorry for any and all typo's!

I am currently on Prozac 20 mg daily and Inderal LA 80 mg daily (for high blood pressure and supposed to prevent migraines).
Oldest son is only on Trileptal as stated above.
Youngest son is not on anything.

In need of some sleep,
AnswersNeeded79

Sorry this is so long! I didn't know where to start?

Hi Answers and welcome to Neuro Talk.

I see that you have located the two forums that would be of interest to you...TBI and Parents of Bipolar children. You will find these are great places to exchange information, get support and make friends. I'm glad you have joined us but sorry for the reasons.

--though I feel sorry for the circumstances that brought you here.

You know, there's much recent thinking about migraine that considers it a subclass of seizure disorder, and that efforts to control it should be attempted with that in mind . . .

I see others have given you link to the appropriate forums, so please do read, read, read--this place is a wealth of info and links--and use knowledge you gain to ask pertinent questions fo the health professionals.

Hi.

Just wanted to say Welcome.

What stuck out to me (in your posting), was that you had been diagnosed since you were 2 with migraines. Then you are lying on a bunk bed and you get up and you can't see and all you could see were two black boxes, you yell for your mother and she DIDN'T BELIEVE YOU?? Did I read this correctly? She did not believe you, yet you were diagnosed with migraines since the age of 2??

My first question is WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF YOUR PARENTS?? Did ANY of them have any problems similar to your own and your kids??

You have been directed to the correct forums. Go there and ask your questions. You will get help.

Take care,

Melody