Thursday, March 20, 2008

Seizure Etiology

Lucas has continued to have seizures (sz) every day. He was having at least 4 a day. It then was up to every time he woke, up to 8 in a day. Marc found a website (epilepsy.com) that offered some helpful information about sz related to sleep. There is one article that states that sleep deprivation can be a major factor in recurrent sz. What it describes is what we have been seeing in Lucas.

I am pretty sure it began with a stuffy nose that was pretty fierce and persistent. It lasted about 3 weeks. He would be awakened by a need to breathe. This greatly disrupted his sleep cycle and, I believe, was the beginning of the vicious cycle of sleep disturbances and seizures. Basically, when the circadian rhythm is thrown off, the atmosphere is ripe for seizure development; the more seizures one has, the more it throws the rhythm.

We invite you to check the website for yourselves if you are interested. The articles are well written, informative and easily comprehensible. There are a few videos that are good for us visual learners too.

The treatment for this is simply to try to get back into the sleep schedule that existed before the stuffy nose began. This translates into me sitting very still while holding Lucas and soothing him back into sleep when he begins to stir. So far, we have seen vast improvements. Now, typically, he is having 2 sz a day compared to 6-8 a week ago. The neurologist's office recommends to keep up what we have been doing and hopefully within another 2 weeks, we will be back to normal.

Thank you all for your prayers. God is good and takes good care of us and we are thankful.

Lucas is calling me now. I hope this information helps those of you curious about what exactly happens when Lucas has a sz.

Blessings!

No comments: