Are these symptoms of BP

[supermom93]

I have a 17 year old son who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was 3.  He was in a coma for 2 weeks at that time and has right side hemiparesis. (his right side is affected like what you would see with a stroke victim)  Since the 1st of July he has been experiencing some odd episodes lately.  Let me try to explain a little.  These episodes last around 7 days. It starts out with the first day with him acting kinda hyper and a little wired, then he has trouble sleeping.  Then he goes into a zombie like state (which would seem natural since he is having trouble sleeping)  He becomes disoriented and can't stay focused on anything very long, you ask him simple questions and he seems confused and can't answer them. Questions like what day is it, where are you, or even what is your favorite car (always 76 Camero).   When he is watching tv he is not really watching it, he's just spacing off, if we watch a movie and ask him an hour later what movie he watched he can't remember.  He can't manage simple task like taking a shower or feeding his dogs. I will tell him to go feed the dogs and he will say "ok" but then it's like his soul leaves his body and his eyes glaze over, kinda like the lights are on but nobody's home.  

He has also wandered off to a neighborhood that is about a mile and a half north of town
out in the country all by itself.  We received a phone call from a police officer had who had received a call from a concerned citizen who had said that a really strange behaving child was roaming their neighborhood and he seemed lost.  At first we were thinking maybe he hit his is head, or he was on drugs or something. So we took him to a hospital where they ran all kinds of blood test, did a cat scan and everything came back normal.

He has had 3 episodes of the same cycle, hyper, unable to sleep, disoriented,  confused and almost
unreachable.  Some example of this is behavior is on the first day of school I told him to get ready and he kept asking where we were going.  I also had to keep redirecting him on what to do next to get ready for school.  When we got in the car he kept asking where we were going. When we got there he looked lost and didn't know any of his teachers names even though he had these teachers last year and the year before.  Another time we were getting ready to go some where and I told him to go get in the car when I got out there he was a half a block away,  When I caught up to him he didn't know where he was going or why he was walking.  

We ended up taking him to the ER once again, this time they admitted him and he was in the hospital for 7 days.  They did a MRI and EEG, and everything once again was normal.  They dx him with rapid cycling BP this is because he has 5-7 days of this behavior and then 10-14 days of normal behavior.  (I might mention he does not get depressed during his 10-14 days of normal)

I don't know much about BP but from what I have read I can see why the hyper activity would be seen as mania but I don't get the other symptoms like the confusion and disorientation. When he comes back around he has trouble remembering things that had happened to him while in the disoriented state.

I also want to mention that up until a week ago my son had not been on any medications.  They have since started him on Depakote.  They said that this is a mood stabilizer but also works for seizure control because they are not 100% that he was not having seizures.  

I would love to hear from those of you who have BP and if you experience any of the symptoms mentioned.  Sorry for the long post, I am just really worried about my son and wanted to make sure I explained his situation well enough.

[opus88]

Oh I sympathize with you when its one of our children and we see things happening and can't find out whats wrong...and we know this behavior is abnormal for them.
My husband suffered a TBI 20 yrs ago and also has hemiparesis. the difference being is he was already BP and had been taking medications, before during and after the TBI.
What was new after the injury were the seizures. only a few major ones but lots of smaller episodes that were only noticeable by someone close that could notice the change in his behavior.....spaced out and unusual.
I remember being told that continued episodes will cause scar tissue to build up in that area of the brain and produce similar effects....
Like I said that was all 20 yrs ago, today he's much the same no increase in seizures and no further decline in mental awareness.
I'm not sure if this is of any help to you? IMO I do believe your son is having seizures the only thing thats baffling is the fact that all the episodes come at regular cycles.
Was he seen by a neurologist while in hospital?
I can see why BP is suspected b/c of the cycling.
Medication is a good place to start towards a diagnosis, in a few weeks you will notice if there is any change in his behavior....keep tons of notes. If there are fewer of these episodes it would indicate being on the right track and the type and or dosage would perhaps just need to be tweaked.

good luck.

[adel_ezz]

I can relate to you. Yet i don't know whether my BP was from the car accident i had 8 years ago in which my head was hit against the glass shield. After a month i started to cry and feeling of disorientation with a little of psychosis.

Only after an antidepressant that i turned manic but that was after 5 years of my 1st dx of OCD yet i am sure this was a wrong dx because since the onset i had flying ideas and intrusive thoughts. Only after 6 years that i was dx BP.

there is a nice folk here bscrisb who passed by an equal experience while playing soccer. They say after a traumatic head injury you get the same symptoms of BP. because the frontal lob or cortex i don't know- is responsible for the mood and emotions.

God with you