something new

Calvin had a seizure this morning at around 6:30am. It was not a grand mal seizure of the type that you see on TV. It was a small seizure about 30 seconds. He lost facial control and his left arm was twitching.  He was ashen white and though conscious, totally unresponsive and unaware of what was going on around him. It was kind of crazy to watch. Even though it was not dramatic, it was kind of scary to know that his brain was going haywire.


After the seizure Calvin came to we asked him if he was okay and he said yes and then went right back to sleep. Dave says people often sleep after seizures since it is such tiring brain activity.


We had thought we should take him to the ER, like any parent would after witnessing their kid have a seizure but Dave thought that before we went in, he should give the neurology resident on call a quick call to ask for advice (I knew being married to a DR. would help us at some point in life!) to ask him what to do. The neurology resident said that  he would call andl schedule an EEG and an appointment with one of the epilipsy specialists in clinic. Since it wasn't a large or dangerous seizure there is no need to go to the ER as there is nothing they would do for him there besides tell us to follow up in the outpatient neurology clinic. Based on the description of the seizure, the time of day (6:15 am as calvin was waking up), and Calvin's age we are told it is most likely Benign Rolandic Epilepsy. 

  http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/what-is-benign-rolandic-epilepsy

Further testing will confirm or refute this idea and then we will see where to go from there.

One of the tender mercies about this morning is that Dave was with me when Calvin had the seizure. Most mornings I get up and help Calvin get ready for school. Dave either sleeps in, or gets up and goes to basketball, or gets up and goes right to work downstairs.  This morning he got up right around 6:30. Calvin was sleeping on the couch upstairs (he very often gets up in the night and then falls back asleep on the couch upstairs so that was not unusual). I had gotten up at 6:20 and sat next to Calvin reading for a few minutes waiting to see if he'd wake up on his own or if I'd need to wake him up. Then around 6:30 dave came walking into the room and sat down next to us and we were both literally staring at Calvin when he began to stir a bit, sat up part way and then began seizing within just a minute of dave coming into the room and sitting down. It was good to have Dave's medical eyes on him observing him as a Dr. so that he could report what had happened.

This is not Calvin's first seizure, though it is the first one that we recognized as a seizure. About two weeks ago I had a similar experience with Calvin. I went in to wake up Calvin and he started waking up. I asked him something and then he tried to respond but couldn't talk or move for a few seconds. That time it was probably 10 seconds or less and there was no twitching that I observed. I mentioned it to dave and he said it could have been a seizure but at that time he wasn't too concerned. Looking back now I know with 100% certainty that it was a seizure.

There are some other situations that we've had over the last year or so, maybe even two years where Calvin has had something weird going on. I am still not sure if these episodes were seizures or not. I will be interested to see what the Dr. says.  Sometimes Calvin will turn really white, and have trouble talking. He will look really weird and then he'll say, "I'm tired" and lay down and go to sleep. This has happened at home, it has happened when we are out and about. I have learned to recognize it and it is the same every time.  When Calvin does go to sleep, sometimes it is 10 minutes and other times it is an hour. I wonder if these have been little mini seizures he has been having. They have occurred infrequently and irregularly at the most twice in a month but sometimes being spaced out over a few months. I have asked our regular family doc, the behavioral/developmental pediatrician, autism doc, psychologist and psychiatrist about this and everyone of them said nothing (but I'm assuming thought I was crazy) when I described this to them in various appointments over the last year. It has been a medical mystery to me. Like I said, I still don't know if seizures are the answer but we will see if the neurologist thinks so.