MacKenzie and the diagnosis of Epilepsy


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What is Epilepsy?

Some signs, symptoms, information, and how it has affected me...


What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a disease that arises because the brain's electrical impulses are not working properly. The normal eletrical messages that the brain sends back and forth to tell the body how to behave and react misfire in a way that abnormal electrical activity occurs on the surface of the brain. Epilepsy is not rare, it is not contagious and is not always disabling. Many famous people have had epilepsy including: Van Gogh, Julius Caesar, Socrates, and Peter the Great.

Do you know the signs?

It can be difficult to tell. Below are some signs that a child may exhibit if he/she is experiencing seizures:

** Sudden falls for no reason

** Lack of response to noise or to spoken words for brief periods

* Dazed and confused behavior

** Unusual sleepiness and irritability when wakened in the morning

* Head nodding

* Rapid blinking and staring

** Frequent complaints from the child that things look, sound, taste, smell, or **feel "funny"; episodes of fear that have no observable cause

* Clusters of jack-knife movements by babies who are sitting down, accompanied by crying

* Clusters of grabbing movements with both arms by babies lying on their backs

** Sudden stomach pain followed by confusion and sleepiness

* A blank stare followed by chewing, picking at clothes, random movements, unresponsive to surroundings

** Sudden muscle jerks

(**= MacKenzie experiences these symptoms)

(from www.efa.org)





MacKenzie has what is called "Generalized" seizures. This means that the entire brain is affected at the onset of the seizure. Generalized seizures always cause a change or loss of consciousness.

During a primary tonic-clonic seizure (grand mal), a person may cry out or gasp, fall down, become rigid, and lose consicousness. Muscles may jerk, breathing becomes shallow, and the person may lose bladder or bowel control. They may also drool, bite their tongue or lips, and their skin may turn blue. This activity stops after a few minutes and afterwards, the person may be confused, drowsy, sleep for a while, and have a headache.

MacKenzie also has absence seizures (petit mal); it appears as a brief loss of awareness that may occur multiple times a day. Only sign may be that the person may blink frequently or the eyes may roll back. Happens so quickly that they often go unnoticed and may appear as if the person is not paying attention. Children may miss hearing information or instructions when it occurs in school.

We believe that MacKenzie has been having petit mal seizures for a while, even before her first grand mal seizure. This could be supported by multiple unexplained falls.

I would love to be able to tell everyone that life is "normal" in our household, but that would be sugar coating it at the least. Scott, Sarah, and I (this is Beth by the way) live in a perpetual state of paranoia when it comes to MacKenzie. If it is TOO quiet for TOO long, we call to her or "find" her. If we cannot hear her answer or find her quick enough, panic sets in. If she makes the "noise" that she makes before she has a grand mal seizure (which is vitually indescribable - you would have to hear it), immediately the heart goes to the stomach and you stop everything and watch her. Most often, thankfully, nothing happens and it was just a fluke or possibly even a petit mal seizure. She has most recently had too pretty significant petit mals witnessed by Beth, one sitting in the bathroom while brushing her teeth resulting in a fall off the counter! The other happened no more than 15 minutes later in her bedroom as she was getting ready for the following day at school and she fell hitting her rearend on her electronic keyboard resulting in a significant scrape and bruise.

Mac does have some behavioral problems that we would like to get to the bottom of ~ it is more than just "I'm 5 and gonna do as I please" behavioral issues. Will keep you updated on the progress here.

This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here.

A very special THANK YOU to everyone who chose to sponsor our team "Marching for MacKenzie" for the Summer Stroll for Epilepsy!
 
In no particular order :-)....
 
Casey from The Therapy Institute
Janet from The Therapy Institute
The gang at Reality Counseling Services
Linn and Owen Jewelers
The Mole Hole
Mr. Toad's Paper
Kelly's Downtown
Sara's Lunchbox Express
Ma-Ah's Futuristic Nostalgia
Grandma and Grandpa P.
Aunt Susie and Uncle Larry
Dr. Zachary Dyme
Grandma and Grandpa A.