Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

MOMMY CONTINUES HER EDUCATION

After all that has gone on in my life thus far, I feel like I have earned much more than my Bachelor's & Master's degrees combined! My real education started after I had children. I want to share some information on Epilepsy with all of you. I feel it is important to know what Epilepsy is & what Emily might be experiencing when she has a seizure. With both of my children, I have committed myself to educating myself on their needs as well as the people around them. I've learned so much about reading an EEG, Infantile Spasms, MRIs, medication, synapses, the list goes on & on. I really don't need to learn anymore vocabulary words, please. UGH!

Epilepsy is a general term used for a group of disorders that cause disturbances in electrical signaling in the brain. Like an office building or a computer, the brain is a highly complex electrical system, powered by roughly 80 pulses of energy per second. These pulses move back and forth between nerve cells to produce thoughts, feelings, and memories.

An epileptic seizure occurs when these energy pulses come much more rapidly-as many as 500 per second for a short time-due to an electrical abnormality in the brain. This brief electrical surge can happen in just a small area of the brain, or it can affect the whole brain. Depending on the part of the brain that is affected, the surge of electrical energy can cause: changes in a person's sensations or state of consciousness or uncontrolled movements of certain parts of the body or of the whole body.

Epilepsy is also known as a seizure disorder because the tendency is to have recurrent seizures.Epileptic seizures vary in severity and frequency, and even in the time of day they occur.While some people may experience no more than two or three seizures during their entire lifetime, others will have several seizures in one day.

EMMIE'S SEIZURES: Emily has approximately 10 seizures/day...visible ones anyway. I am starting to see a pattern of several seizures in the morning, very few in the afternoon/evening. Lack of sleep or interrupted sleep will cause Emmie to have more seizures. During a seizure, she jerks her head & arms abruptly...up to 5 or 6 times in a row. That is considered 1 event, or 1 seizure. The events are fairly short, lasting about 5 seconds or so. If she ever has a seizure that lasts 5 minutes, I have emergency medication to give her. It's been an adjustment for me to remember to carry her meds on me all the time. We went camping last week & I forgot them. That was stressful!

Emily can have a seizure at any time: sitting, playing, eating, when I'm holding her or when she's in her highchair or the bathtub. Once in a while she loses her balance. It is possible that Emily could outgrow her seizures, but only time will tell. My wish for Emmie is that her seizures completely stop NOW & that her development will not be affected anymore than it already has.

The kids are in bed. Time for me to hit the couch, break out the ice cream & watch
So You Think You Can Dance!

17 days til Eric comes home for his 2 week leave!! WOOHOO!! :)


1 comment:

  1. It's been over 2 years since my little one had her one seizure... I still have the $200 "5 minute seizure" medication in the glove box of my car and one in the medicine cabinet! Poor little Emmie. Praying the seizures stop SOON!

    ReplyDelete