Adam's Seizures

Now that we are a couple months away from it, I can post a little info about what happened.

On May 8th, we had just returned from Adam's T-Ball game.  Here he is.

I was laying down on my bed and he was in my bathroom washing his hands when I heard the glass soap dispenser crash to the ground.  I flew into the bathroom to protect him from the glass.  He had fallen back and I pulled him away from the glass and then I noticed that he was shaking a little and did not respond to me.  I thought he was choking on something.  So I pick him up to give him the heimlich but nothing changes.  Then I really start freaking out and running all over the house, carrying Adam, including shouting help out the front door.  At some point I call 911.  Adam's shaking stops.  I thought he'd died from choking to death.  But I could feel his heart and see him breathing so I felt confused.  The 911 lady said that it sounded like a seizure and they were sending the ambulance.  I'm not exactly sure what happened when:  when I called 911, when the seizure stopped, when I spoke to the lady because it is all such a blur.  She told me to lay Adam on his side because he had fallen asleep.  The paramedics got there and agreed that it was probably a seizure.  They were very reassuring and checked him out and prepared to take him to the hospital.

Cortis was out with the kids buying mother's day presents and wasn't picking up his phone so I texted him and called his parents (who live nearby).  Monika got here within seconds  (she must have dropped the phone and ran the whole way.  And Cortis had seen my text and was home before we got into the ambulance.  

At the hospital, Adam woke up (sleeping for 30-45 minutes is expected after a seizure) and was in good spirits and very active.  Good stuff.  The doctor told us that seizures are surprisingly common and that there was every reason to suspect that he might never have another seizure again.  No need to restrict his activity even. So we were checked out.

We walked 1/2 block to the Which Wich sandwich place to get some lunch (as it was now 2:00pm) and Adam picked out some chips and a seat (on those unfortunately high bar stool seats) and fell off with another seizure.  It was terrifying to see him fall head first off the chair but the seizure was much, much less scary.  Cortis picked him up and carried him back to the ER.

This time everyone was a bit more serious about what was going on.  Apparently, one seizure is no-biggie but two seizures is not a good sign.  He got a CAT scan and was admitted into the hospital (by the way Go Dell Children's Hospital, I always love the care my kids get at the Children's Hospital).  We were supposed to get an EEG and an MRI, but these things must be much harder to schedule than you would think because we never got one in the hospital.  

After a happily seizure free night and morning, we walked our bored and active son all over the hospital and in the playroom.  He ended up with quite a collection of toys in our room, so much so that everyone who came in commented on it.  He had to be one of the healthiest kids in the hospital.

So we were sent home with an appointment with the neurologist for an EEG and an MRI.

The EEG was normal and after consulting with the neurologist, we decided against anti-seizure medication.

Then only 6 days later, he had a series of mini-seizures (perhaps called drop-attacks) where he would seize for just a moment.  Long enough to fall backwards or drop whatever he was holding.  He had 7 in 2 1/2 hours.  We called the neurologist and he said we could come back to the hospital or try some seizure medication.  We went for the seizure medication and he hasn't had a seizure since.

Two weeks later, he had his MRI.  He had to be sedated and had a bad reaction to the sedative (threw up a few times, super groggy).  The MRI results said that his brain was "unremarkable" which is reassuring and also slightly insulting.  

So where does that leave us?  The MRI scan being normal is good because there is no structural reason for the seizures.  But 70% of seizures are idiopathic which means that no one knows why they happen.  So Adam will be on the medication for some time and then we'll take him off it and see if he has any more.  There is a good chance that that will be it, no more seizures.  Or he may have seizures for the rest of his life.