Coping With Our Child’s “First Seizure”

Three days after his sixth Christmas, my youngest son experienced what his doctors have called a “first seizure.”  We went immediately to the emergency room, where several tests were ran, as doctors tried to rule out any physical cause for the seizure.  They came up empty, and have called it a “first seizure.”

Although I understand that they’re making a clinical diagnosis, that doesn’t exact inspire much confidence on my part.  After all, “first” implies that there are going to be more than one.

What Exactly Is A “First Seizure?”

We’re currently in the process of learning what this means.  What we’ve learned thus far is the following:

• On a global basis, up to 5% of people can expect to experience at least one seizure in their lifetime
• Evidence suggests that, unless there is a family history of epilepsy, (or other neurological abnormality), only 33% of those first seizures experience more seizures (over a 4-year period)
• For those who experience a second seizure, the risk of a third seizure rises dramatically

Right now, we’re on pins and needles, hoping that second ball doesn’t drop.  And worried that if it does, we pray that he doesn’t get hurt in the process.

What we know right now is that there are nearly as many reasons for seizures as there are people on the planet.  We’ve talked to people who have seizures induced by flickering lights, medications, locations, flashing colors, specific colors, moving objects, … And the list goes on, and on.  It seems in most cases, the reasons are totally unknown.  I’m quite certain that there are far more people who suffer from seizures for totally unknown reasons.

One of the most helpful things I’ve encountered about seizures is the concept of a “seizure threshold.”  This concept suggests that all people have a delicate balance between excitatory and inhibitory forces in the brain, and that anything that upsets that balance may induce a seizure event.  It may be that certain individuals are at greater risk for having that balance disturbed.  Or, that for certain individuals, that balance is more susceptible to being disturbed by some unknown factors.

Right now, we’re following the “standard regimen,” which calls for an EEG.  We went for that this morning.  He got up with Mommy at 2am Tuesday morning so he would be good and tired for the test.  We all trooped down to the diagnostic imaging center for a 9am appointment, where he was treated very good by the technicians conducting the tests.  He held up like a trooper, but they put a cap on him and ran a 30-minute EEG, catching some sleep in the process.  Kind of interesting to see his brainwaves while he was dreaming.

It makes me wonder what my little boys dream about.  Puppy dogs and cinnamon rolls?

I can only hope they stay so innocent.

Resources

• National Institute of Health
• Epilepsy.com
• Wikipedia – Seizure Threshold

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