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Teenage daughter with seizure activity

Good Morning.
My 14 year old daughter has just been diagnosed with seizure activity in the left side of her brain after having an EEG.  

She fainted twice in the spring and after several tests it was determined that she had hypoglycemia.  We started feeding her more frequent smaller meals. This seemed to solve the problem until about 3 weeks ago when she fainted again, but this time she had already eaten and when she woke up she had a stabbing pain in her head that caused her to curl up in a ball and sob.  We took her to the ER and they did a CT scan and blood sugars which were all normal.  We followed up with her family doctor who referred her to a pediatric neurologist.  She saw the neurologist who set her up for the EEG.  A week and a half later, she fainted again in the shower and then later on in the day she fainted in the hallway at school.  She went to the family doc who did an EKG and sent her for a glucose test.  The EEG was already scheduled. A consult with the pediatric cardiologist was set up.  Ok so,,, now the neurologist wants her to start on Keppra immediately.  I know nothing about seizure activity and/or this medication.  

I guess my biggest question is "will/have the seizures had any affect on her learning?"  she has a pretty heavy academic load in 9th grade and I want to make sure she can handle it.  Also, she works every Saturday and Sunday and plays Volleyball two days a week.  Does too much activity have any impact on seizures occuring?  Also, "seizure activity" and "epilepsy" are they one and the same?   Everything that I look up is related to epilepsy.  Thank you for any help any of you can give to me with this.  I am planning on getting a second opinion just to make sure she needs to be on this medication but I was hoping some of you could help me out as I feel so ignorant when it comes to this information.

Stacy
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Avatar universal
Hi,
You might also want to look into alternative besides the drugs.  There are therapies like Neurofeedback, Acupuncture etc.,   Hitting the head is definitely bad and you have to be extremely cautious.  I am suffering from Post Concussion Syndrome after Head Injury and it is worse.
Good luck.
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Avatar universal
Hi, I have epilepsy for 17 years ever since I was born. It runs in my family. If you need any advice I would be gladly to help. Just because someone has epilepsy doesn't mean they can't be a normal person. They can do any sports but just make sure they have plenty to drink and a lot of rest. The only trouble will be getting there drivers license. They will have to be 2 years free of seizures. They will sometimes get treated different but that's what makes us stronger.

I had one bad seizure (grand mal) at my cousin house. I was all perfectlt fine until more and more people showed up. I started feeling dizzy and had a headache so I thought if I went and laid down it would help. All I remember from there was once I came back to it I had a horrible headache and everyone was scared.

Make sure you warn the teachers just incase it ever happens in class. And don't show the child or person your scared. You want to remain calm and soothing voice. Never give them anything to eat or drink until they are aware of there surroundings.

Here's a website to help:

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/types_seizures

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/guide/types-of-seizures-their-symptoms
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Avatar universal
Thank you for your response.  Her doctor upped her meds to 1500 to start on Friday.  I hope this takes care of the problem.  Good luck with your child. It is a difficult thing to witness.
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Avatar universal
Hi! My 6 year old has been on Keppra for almost a year. Though we have had to increase the dose to 1250 mg / day, she is more stable than before. In our experience seizure meds usually are incremented to their recoomended dosages so it may take some time for it to get to it's effective level. Always address your concerns with your doctor though. Some people do need lifelong medications where in some cases people don't. I think time will tell. Hold tight. You will get the hang of it. Watching your child have a seizure is so difficult because there isn othing you can do but make sure they are safe and comfortable. Good luck!
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Avatar universal
My daughter has been on Keppra now for 6 days and she seems to be getting worse?!?
She had two seizures yesterday, one at work where she hit her head when she fell and then one at home that my husband and I were able to observe (this is the first one that we have seen the whole way through).  She got dizzy and so we walked her to her bed where she laid down.  My husband had her close her eyes and there was some rapid eye movement that we could observe.  She then had some tremors in her arms and then it passed and she was feeling a little better but tired.  This is the first time that we have seen any "shaking" at all although it could have occurred as we always came in after the fall. After the first incidence yesterday, the doctor said to up her Keppra to 1000 mg a day (she was on 500 a day for the first week which would have ended tomorrow).  I am staying home with her today to try to get an appointment with the neurologist as I was scared to send her to school.  Any thoughts?
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Avatar universal
Thank you for replying.
I guess my daughter is considered an epileptic then since she has fainted five times.  She just had an MRI done last night so we will see how that goes.  My husband and I decided to go ahead and put her on the Keppra now, but we have a second opinion with another pediatric neurologist scheduled for January.  Good luck with your son.  Im glad to hear that he went 3 years without a seizure. That is encouraging.  It is distressing to know that when he was off the meds, he had a seizure though. I was hoping that this would be something that she would grow out of once her hormones settled down so that she would not need the meds forever? I dont know, I guess I am just being naive.  
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Avatar universal
STACY,
My son started doing the same thing when he turned 13. the EEG showed electric activity. They started him on depakote 750 mil per day. He is now almost 17and hasn't had a sezisure in 3 yrs. however 3 weeks ago he had one like I have never seen. but come to find out he wasn't taking his medication. before he would just pass out but this was a flew blown sezisure. I ask the dr that same qusetion anbout sezisure and epilepsy. He told me. and he is a neurologist that if you have more than one seizure than it considered epiepsy. He said anyone that is dignosed with seizsure is an eplitic.
hope this help
Barbara
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Avatar universal
Thank you for responding.  I am not completely sold on the Keppra yet and my husband does not want to put her on it.  We are looking into getting a second opinion to make sure the EEG was correct and that nothing else like orthostatic events could have registered on the EEG before we make this step.  I appreciate your response though as I have not seen too many positive posts on the effects of Keppra.  
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Avatar universal
I have been having seizures on and off. Keppra has done a great job for me. I have not had as many seizures.At times my dosage changes but otherwise then that I am doing well with functioning. I was epileptic when I was younger and know have seizures. If I remember correctly epilepsy is a worse of the 2. It is constant and is harder to deal with. Seizures can be more managable. In the beginning she may need to be more careful on her activity level until she knows how the medications helps her. Then she should be able to be just as active as any other teenager.

Lorena
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