3yr old with Epilepsy

[alliecat_84]

My 3yr old daughter has been diagnosed with Epilepsy for about a year now. She has only had 3 episodes of seizures all up. All her seizures have been bought on by vomiting. Each episode consists of about 5-8 mini tonic seizures, each lasting less then 30seconds. Each time she has had her episodes we rush her to emergency. The last episode she had (August 2008) the ER had her hooked up to a heart monitor and noticed that in the last seizure (had 8 all together that day) her heart rate dropped down to about 20-30bpm. She has had a MRI which has come back all clear and are just waiting to see her cardiologist next month. She is currently on Epilim.
My question is: Does anyone else suffering from Epilepsy have problems with their heart rate when they have a seizure?
Her doctors are trying to work out three things that might trigger it...Her heart making her seize and vomit, or vomitting causing her to seize and heart rate to drop or if the seizures are causing her to vomit and heart rate to drop.

[milo_1]

Hi, my daughter was dx with epilepsy at age 3 also. She was on Zarontin at that time. She is now 21, the seizures got worse...they started out as staring (petit mal) and became tonic clonic right around her menses at age 11.  Then she had a few more over the years, and now she is completely controlled on Lamictal. As for the heart rate thing, she has never had that happen. Email me anytime, as I have been in your shoes.
Colleen

[alliecat_84]

Thank you so much for your response and I apologise for my delayed response.
My daughter has been well since last time and was only in hospital at the end of October 2008.
We saw a Cardiologist in November and he doesn't seem to think it is anything too major. Like you, he said that when some people vomit or faint or feel dizzy their heart does drop dramatically, but the good thing is that her heart rate goes back to normal instantly after a seizure!

[missy1029]

Hey I hope you find answers soon can be very scary. First let me apoligize for my spelling its horible! did I spell that right? Anyway I am a 33y f was diagnosed last year with complex partial seizers. With my seizures my heart rate drops too. With my last seizure it droped to 35bpm. At first they did not know that, it took about 6 mths of testing to get all of this figured out. we went round and round with the drs about it They cardo doc put me on a heart monitor for about a week,would have been longer but I had a seizer and that was when we found the drop. So we still went back and forth about what was causing it, I would get dizzy, thats the best way to explain it, feel really nausios, and just pass out. I never actually vomitted though. But just like you said what came first the chicken or the egg? First of all they wanted to put in a pace maker, and I fought that, i did not want that at my age, so I had a tilt table test done which was very unplesent but it did show signs of a cardio problem. But the key with that is that it was actually a dehydration problem. I can not hold my salt/sodium. The trigger for the drop in heart rate was the seizures. but with more sodium in my system I don't have the drop in my bpm. The medical name is "ictal bradycardia syndrom" there are a few forms but it's not common. ictal just means the seizure itself and the bradycardia is the slow heart rate. So with a change in diet, and my seizure meds I have not had any problems since Oct. 5 2007. You are the mom you know your child don't give up untill your satisfied with the answers you get. I hope that helped please let me know how she is.