http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febrile_seizures/detail_febrile_seizures.htm#104063111
Our oldest boy has seizures. His first four happened just before his first birthday. The first happened around 5 pm and the second around 9 pm and then the next 2 happened with in a minute of each other around 9 am. These all happened within 12 hours. I was at home with him for the first. I called looking for my husband at our friends home and he came racing home and we took him to the hospital. This was our first mistake. I should have let his seizure finish and then take him in. We were first time parents at this and were in shock and thinking our little guy was dying. I knew he was having a seizure but he looked like he was having trouble breathing too. We were very soon thrown into the world of doctors, worries and panic. Our family doctor has been awesome through our experience. Some other doctors have not.
Now our son has had 9 in total with the last being last February. We are definitely more informed now and hope to inform and support and share our stories with other families dealing with the same febrile seizures. When we first started to share our stories about our son and his seizures we got a lot of different responses.
From some of our religious family members we were told that we should baptize him, others were worried about damaging his mental capabilities after the seizure, and other thankfully were calm and very supportive. We were lucky because my parents witnessed and had dealt with febrile seizures before. I had one when I was 1 year old just after my immunization.
My husband and I were determined to learn more about these seizures and reassure and inform people about them. A lot of people compared his seizure to a kid holding his breath and a kid having a temper tantrum. This was not even close. We wanted our family and friends to be well informed about these seizures since he can have them when ever he was running a temperature. Most of my immediate family has witnessed one of his seizures. My husbands family though has not and we really wanted them to be able to witness what it would look like. This I know sound horrible, but if they could see what it would look like they would know what was happening and we think be able to react calmer.
I have dealt will all of his seizure except one. I was either by myself, with my husband or with family. At the beginning my husband and I thought we could prevent them if we could keep his temperature down... and we found out very quickly that if they are going to happen they just do. There is nothing we can do to prevent them. I guess that is not exactly true you can give your child seizure medication which we do not want to do since they are just febrile seizures and do not cause any long term effect on him.
I hope this blog gets noticed and I can communicate with other parents of children who have febrile seizures.
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10 years ago
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3 comments:
My dd's first febrile seizure last over 40 minutes. I was a first time parent & we called paramedics. She was put into the ICU for 2 days & went through a battery of tests. It was what they referred to as a "complex febrile seizure." I gather the worst of its kind.
From what I have read they say to let the seizure run itself out. I don't agree. The reality is that a seizure is usually supposed to last 3-5 minutes. In my area the general response time for paramedics is 7 minutes. If I wait 5 minutes for the seizure to end & then another 7 minutes for an ambulance it's 12 minutes too long in my opinion.
Her 2nd seizure did only last 5 minutes. I did call paramedics & it was over by the time they arrived. She was still taken to the hospital & they offered to let her stay because of her history. I declined because I had done my research & felt comfortable enough to take her home.
My dd is now 4 & 1/2 and it looks promising enough to confidently say she has now outgrown them.
I am hopeful that your son outgrows his soon too.
What a great tool for sharing what you know, Jaime! Keep up the good work!
In regards to Shannon's comment I would like to say that if I was in your position I would probably do the same. We are two blocks away from a hospital and 15 minutes away from where we doctor. We are very lucky and have only had to deal with 5 minutes of a seizure. I can't imagine how long that must have felt and how scared you must have been. Even though Peyton has 2 - 5 minute seizures they feel like a life time.
In total now Peyton has had 10 seizures.
He had his 5th seizure in November 2006 when I was looking after our friends little boy. He was sick with a cold or flu.
The 6th seizure happened at my parents over the Christmas Holidays 2006. My whole family was their to witness it. He actually had a really bad case of tonsillitis.
His 7th seizure happened in January of 2007 at his babysitters and he was showing no signs of being sick. When we took him in to see the doctor his throat was a little red.
The 8th seizure was at my sisters in September of 2007. He came down with the stomach flu. This was in his sleep and he had woke up and he felt warm so I was trying to get motrin in him and cool him down with a cloth. I layed him back down and he started to fall asleep and then I could hear him saying no no and then he had another seizure.
His 9th seizure was in October 2007 and was also in his sleep. My husband was awakened by the gagging choking sound that he makes when he seizes.
His 10th and last seizure(so far) was in February 2008. He was on the couch sick and was in the kitchen getting him something to drink because he seemed to be getting warm again. When I came back he was seizing.
We are very lucky because Peyton is a very active, capable 3 year old. He doesn't have any side affects other than just after his seizure when he is limp and regaining consciousness and muscle control.
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