My 10 year old daughter had a very rough start to life. She was born with moconium aspiration syndrom (MAS) and she was in the hospital for almost 6 months and had many difficult surgeries. She was very delayed when she came home which we had expected.
She started having problems in school early on and she was placed in Special Educational classes. She was then diagnosed with ADHD or at least that is what the doctor thought it was. We started seeing behavior issues last winter. And then she started to go off into a stare which I knew deep inside that she was not just daydreaming. We had some bloodwork done and that was fine so then we had a CT scan of her brain and that showed up with some abnormalities and then she went for a MRI. That showed more abnormalities.
She saw a neuorologist at DuPont Hospital the begining of September 09. That is when my daughter was diagnosed with Anoxic Brain Damage and Transient Alteration of Awareness. The neurologist told my husband and I that she has a brain of a 75 year old with ahziemers. Also that the damage that is done will not get worse but she will not get better. She had to have 2 EEGs done and they were both abnormal too.
She was diagnosed with Epilepsy a week and a half ago she is having partial seizures. The doctor put her on Tileptral and she is titrating up to the recommended dosage. This is all new for me. I do not think that she is going to out grow this since she has the brain damage that was caused from her issues at birth. I am looking for a great support group to see how to handle children with epilepsy. I am kind of having a hard time taking everything in. First it was her being really sick as a baby, then in September 09 it was the shocking news of my little girl having anoxic brain damage and now she is having seizures and has epilepsy. And her behavior has not gotten any better either...
Please if anyone can give me some support it would really be appriciated!
Thanks,
Melissa - a worried and scared mother...
Brain damage and seizures
Hi Melissa,
My heart goes out to you - it was be very difficult to get that diagnosis and be left with the thought that there is not much that will help. As hard as it is, do not give up on finding a treatment that can help.
From what you told me, the problems are in the brain. Time to do some research on the brain and what makes it perform better. If this were my child, I would get her in for neurotherapy treatments to see what level you can get her to. We had tremendous results with learning and behavior after neurotherapy treatments. We were able to actually FIX the problems in the brain. These treatments are also used to treat seizures so you may get two benefits.
Here is what I suggest:
1. Buy this book on neurotherapy and learn about it
2. Listen to my podcast with Dr Swingle to find out why it works
I wish you the very best and please let me know if you decide to do the treatments.
Warmly,
Arlene Martell (Mom of Adam above)
Publisher, EpilepsyMoms.com