6 year old, seizures just started

[joelb]

My 6 year old had a grand mal seizure  for the first time ever two weeks ago.  She ended up at the Children’s Medical Hospital in Dallas.  All test game back good, except for the EEG, but it was only slightly abnormal.  Last weekend, she fell while playing and hit her head on the table.  She was very upset (unusual for her) and started having shaking seizures several hours later that lasted 5-20 seconds.  She throw up with each seizure.  She probable had about 10 of these over 3-4 hours.  The seizures stopped on there on in the emergency room.  The emergency room put her on Keppra, that is when the real nightmare stared.  She stopped sleeping, had wild mood swings, hallucinations, rage, screaming and attaching (no behavioral problems ever before this).  She would hug me for an hour at a time, and leave blood scratch marks on my back.  Anxiety was very high.  We took her off the Keppra (a call to the children’s hospital confirmed to do this).  She was on it only three days, and I would say hardly slept.  When we took her off, at night she sleep talked and trashed a lot, and hallucinated, but that was a lot better than before.  Question 1:  After a Grand mal seizure, can you have smaller “after shook” seizures, especially after hitting your head?  How long till you “heal” from a Grand mal seizure?  Question 2:  We will hesitate extremely before putting her back on medication, the effects of the Keppra were worse than the smaller little seizures she had.   But if we are forced to go with medicine, what is the best for a child like this? Should we wait to see if the seizures start up again before deciding on medicine?

[Rena705]

I wish we could help you but you are in the Multiple Sclerosis Forum.  If you go to see all in the ask the doctor forum there is a section for Children's Neurology and if you click that it will take you to Seizure Disorders.  Just select what you have already typed here and Copy and Paste it to the Seizure Disorder area.

I hope that you are able to get some help for your child...I have had seizure myself and they can be very scary but they can also be controlled with medication as a rule.  

Best of Luck to you and Lots of Hugs,

Rena

[Casie0726]

I have heard keppra is bad about causing mood swings. I am on tegretol. I had my first (febrile) seizure when I was 5 and that's what I was put on. In Sept and Nov I had alot of very nasty grand mals. I'm not going to say this to scare you, but you should be aware. I have lost a good deal of my memory (as far as past memories). I can be reminded easily of some and some I have no recollection. My short term memory has been affected too.
Just try to be patient with her and your doctors. Ask about tegretol. It's on the wal-mart $4 dollar list to if that is available where you live.