On June 13 I explored the relationship between Autism and Epilepsy as I prepared for my son’s appointment with a neurologist. We had our official appointment with the neurologist on July 1st and the appointment went very well. The doctor was fantastic and listened to all of my concerns and then proceeded to do a basic neurological exam on Alexander.
Alexander was in one of his less-social moods. At one point during the exam, the neurologist handed my son a piece of paper and asked him to read the paper. After a bit of silence, the neurologist pointed to one of the lines on the paper and said “read that line” to which Alexander replied “I already did.” I chuckled as I realized that Alexander was reading in his head. I told Alexander that the doctor wanted to hear him read to which Alexander proclaimed “I read in my head.” He flat-out refused to read aloud. The doctor was great and didn’t push it.
The doctor said that the episodes that Alexander is having are all complex partial seizures. According to the Epilepsy Foundation website:
“During a complex partial seizure, a person cannot interact normally with other people, is not in control of his or her movements, speech or actions; doesn’t know what he or she is doing; and cannot remember afterwards what happened during the seizure.”
This helps to explain some of Alexander’s odd meltdowns. These aren’t your typical “autism tantrums” but instead a much shorter but very odd meltdown of which Alexander has no recollection. The doctor said that this might also explain his sleepwalking, night terrors and frequent nightmares. Alexander will have nightmares four or five nights a week on average. I know that nightmares are common in childhood, but four or five nights a week is just not typical.
Alexander started on a medicine called Keppra which is supposed to work very will with these types of seizures. I have only noticed two obvious seizures in the first ten days of the medicine. He is only having nightmares three or four nights a week now as well. I haven’t seen him sleepwalking (which he usually does a couple of times a week) and no night terrors.
The only downside is Keppra can come with some behavioral side effects – someone coined the term Kepprage to describe these tiresome side effects. Alexander is definitely a bit grouchier than normal but so far nothing all out rage-like. Hopefully they side effects will ramp down once he reaches his therapeutic dose in a couple of weeks.
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God bless you. Thanks for posting. You might want to check http://www.autismseizureselfinjuriousbehavior.com is website of mom with autistic son and epilepsy has. Lots of interesting information. Hope it helps.
Hi I have a daughter of the age of 6 and she has been having this kind of seizures since she was 2. It scared me so much the first time she had a episode, I didnt know what was going on. She has had a EEG test done on her a C.A.T. scan and also a 24 hr EEG. They have yet to diognosed her with anything because nothing ever shows up. At this moment she has a EEG machine strapped to her for 72 hrs hoping to catch one. The list of symptoms that she has are: smacking of the mouth; shaking of arms and legs; not being responsive; blank stare also fast eye blinking; and recently not being able to hold herself up; not being aware of what happened; sometimes she does it in the middle of the night and just goes back to sleep. She has also had them during the day and then go back to whatever she was doing. Its been a while since we started trying to diagnose what is happening with her and from the research I’ve done point to complex partial seizures. I know that the doctors that she is going to are good doctors but I feel since she has had a new symptom come up recently I want them to figure out what is going on with her soon before it gets worse. I was wondering if you could tell me how they diagnosed your son how long it took and if you have any advice the information would comfort me and may help in the end.
I’m sorry you have been going through this for so long Marivett! My son was diagnosed very quickly – he had a clean EEG (just the short-term one) but the neurologist said his symptoms were classic for complex partial seizures so started him on medication. The medication started to work and so that was pretty much the end of the diagnostic stage for him. Have you received the results from the 72-hr EEG yet?
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