Seizures

This is a blog of wrote last summer but never posted for some reason.  I am posting it now.  Enjoy.

Last June (2011) while we were in NC, Riley had what we believed were 2 seizures.  So we took her to see a neurologist.  She decided that she wante to get an EEG (An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test that measures and records the electrical activity of your brain.) to determine if she was having abnormal activity. 

It is similar to a sleep study with all of the pobe on your head, but that is where it ends..  She HATES getting the probes put on.  As son as the tech put on his gloves and picked the first pobe Riley started to freak out.  It only got worst from there.  She screamed at the top of her lungs as he put a;; the pobes on.  She was bright red, snot and drool running down her face.  I always feel bad for the techs, they always look at me like "Do you want me to stop?" And I always tell them that she is fine and just to keep going that she will get over it.  Then you get the "Are you sure look?"  I figure that she is already pissed so you might as just keep going and I will calm her done when it is all over. 

After he left and turn out the lights she calmed right doen, just like I know she would.  She even fell asleep.  The test lasted about an hour then at the end they wake the child up and flash light in their eyes trying to see if it will cause a seizure.

Riley did goo and had no more abnormal brain activity then they would expect from someone with a shunt placed.  This of course does not mean that what she had in June were seizures, but it also ti does not mean that she isn't having them either.  The problem with this test is gthat it can only tell you if she is having seizures during the time of the test.

The doctor did say that she doesn't believe Riley has a seizure disorder.  but seh cautioned us that she could develop one.  So her advice was to keep an eye on her and if it happened again we could do a 24 hour EEG.  She told us to watch for any sudden head dropping, if she stared out into space and we were not able to get her attention back quickly, and tighting of her limbs.

Riley does still state into space sometime, which could be an absence seizure, but we can get her attention back pretty quickly  So we are just watching her at this point.