Sleep apnea and seizures

[alyssaterrill930]

My 5 year old daughter has sleep apnea, which I am sure is due to her very large tonsils. However her sleep apnea only seems to happen in the fall to which she has allergies. Every fall we have also experienced some kind of fainting or seizure spells. She never completly passes out, but shows all the signs of fainting, drops her head like she is fainting but we can always say her name and she will respond then try to sleep again. She gets very pale and sweats, we put her head between her legs and she slowly recovers. But since she does not seem to completly lose conciousness is this really consider a fainting spell. The neurologist first tested her for seizures her EEG and EKG came back normal, so he decided to wait to see if it happens again. It happened again last fall and every episode she has had usually starts by saying she does not feel well, sometimes she vomits and then just goes to sleep or maybe she passes out and we can just wake her right away.  All three times this has happend she had not eaten much or for awhile, so they thought it could be hypoglycemia which we have now also ruled out. We are now going back to the nurologist next month, but I feel like I am being told so many possibly things it could be, and find myself extremely streessed not know what is causing this. Could it be from her sleep apnea since it all seems to happen at the same time of year when she is not getting much sleep. I am scared to have her tonsils out since she will have to have anstesia ,exspecially without having reasons why she is having once a year seizures or fainting spells.
Thank You

[frddd1]

i have had similar  afainting spells. had echo cardiogram and stress tests, came out ok. had a 24 hour monitor and it suggests i stop breating at times during sleep. i am scheduled to test for sleep apnea which i think i have.

[noops01]

hi,
yes i think that the symtoms are due to sleep apnea which can lead to excessive sleepiness.Treatment for sleep apnea begins with treating the underlying causes. The allergies have to be treated. Steroid nasal spray is very helpful in children. Please get her evaluated by a pediatric ENT and he can advise on further course of action.

[okiegirl21]

I find your comment very interesting.  My husband (35) recently had two episodes, three weeks apart, of fainting in the middle of the night while in the bathroom.  Both instances were preluded by hours of nausea and follwed by vomiting and diaherria.  The first instance I caught him before he hit the floor and he experienced a slight seziure after fainting.  The second instance he hit the floor and broke his cheek bone which required surgery to repair. I do not know if he had a seziure with that one as I found him on the floor. He was in the hospital for 5 days and they ran numerous cardio tests.  They said they found "nothing".  After surgery they told us he was experiencing signs of sleep apnea while in recovery.  We are wondering if the sleep apnea could have had anything to do with his fainting.  I would be interested to know if you ever found out if there is any link between your daughter's fainting and sleep apnea.

[Connie 1]

sleep apnea can make you sleepy enough to fall asleep but when people fall asleep they don't usually vomit or pass out which is what it sounds like your daughter is experiencing.  It sounds more like she's almost fainting, and that can be due to the heart.  She should also see a pediatric cardiologist.