Yet Another Diagnosis? You Bet!! Epilepsy!!

So just when we think that the doctors have run out of things to diagnose our precious son with, we get yet another doozy. . .this one is Epilepsy.

The poor kid is seizing anywhere from once every three seconds (yes, you heard that right, EVERY THREE SECONDS) up to three times PER second.  24/7.  And we had no idea.  None.

His kind is called Absence Epilepsy, which means that he has petit mal seizures (also called Absence Seizures).  This means that he doesn't yet have convulsions, but the seizures make him lose consciousness for very brief periods of time and can be either completely undetectable or look like he's staring into space for a moment.

FYI:  Seizures in general are produced by electrical impulses misfiring in either the entire brain or a portion of it.  Other kinds of Epilepsy/seizures are called Grand Mal (which is what most people think of when the word Epilepsy pops up), Myoclonic (sporatic jerking movements), Clonic (repetitive jerking movements, Tonic (rigid or stiff muscles) and Atonic (loss of muscle tone).

I took a little bit of comfort in knowing that I didn't miss anything glaring. . .Absence Seizures often present with few or no symptoms. . .but there are a host of potential behavioral and educational ramifications.  Some of which look suspiciously like things he's already been diagnosed with.  Methinks some further research and testing is needed to see what symptoms/behaviors might actually be caused by epilepsy after all.

Perhaps we can get rid of a few other diagnoses in light of this one new one!

(photo courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net and can be found here)