[reapingjoy]

The SWs are in the process of finding a new family for our pre-adoptive daughter, but until then we are continuing to try to get her proper medical care & therapies (which she went without for almost 3 years in foster care).

The specialist already wanted to do an EEG because she will sometimes have shaky spells where her legs will tremble (& sometimes her whole body). She has never fallen down or anything with it but will seem very weak, slow, & unsteady. They wanted to rule out a seizure disorder. The ped thinks it's related to FAS & thinks the EEG will come out normal.

Now, here's my quandry - She has a lot of cognitive issues & one of them is that sometimes when you are telling her something, she will get a very blank look on her face. I never could think of a good word to describe it until today when we had our session with the psychologist - she gets a glazed look in her eye & doesn't blink or talk. The psychologist is very concerned that she is having seizures during this time.

Here is a prime example of how it happens: Today she came & told me she wanted her cup. She had it a few minutes before she asked & is always misplacing things, so I had no idea where she put it. I told her to go look in the room where she had it at. She stood right there looking at me & said "I can't find it". As I was saying "you didn't even go look for it", the glazed look started coming into her eyes. (She didn't speak or blink again for the whole rest of the event) I kept telling her that she needed to go look for her cup, but I could tell nothing was registering. At some point she moved about 3 or 4 steps toward the room where her cup was & then stopped, still staring at me. My 2 y.o. heard all this, ran to get the cup, & brought it back. She actually put the cup on M's shoulder up by her face & M never even flinched or looked at it. E held it there saying "here's your cup" over & over, and she still didn't respond. E finally threw the cup on the floor & ran off to play. I went over, picked up the cup, & put it on the counter. M still didn't move or blink. After another minute or so, she ran off to play like nothing had happened & didn't ask for her cup or even notice it sitting on the counter a foot away from her face. It was like the whole incident never happened.

She has done this many times before, but never for this long. I was attributing it to a lack of ability to process what we were saying, but now I'm not so sure. (and now I'm really concerned because it happens a lot)

So, my main question is: Should I tell the specialist about what happened so it can be noted for her EEG or will they discover "whatever" is wrong no matter if they are looking for something in particular or not?

Thanks so much!

[linda512]

It sounds very much like an absence seizure. You should definitely tell the doctor. If she is having them frequently, they will greatly interfere with her learning- just as you described. She can't remember what she was doing, so she starts over after each event.
Good luck.

[maricela]

I agree - sounds like absence seizures. My son was diagnosed about 4 years ago & what you are describing sounds very familar! They did EEG and a sleep deprived EEG to diagnose him. At that time he was having seizures almost every day. They would drain him & he'd sleep alot. He started having issues at school with his grades. Once he was controlled with meds, all went back to normal. We are about 6 months seizure free!!!! The longest we've gone seizure free is 8 months. He tends to start getting them when he has growth spurts & his medication needs adjusting.

Good luck to you!!!

[reapingjoy]

Thanks for your input! I did tell the specialist about it & within an hour they scheduled her EEG for Tuesday (after we had waited weeks for them to schedule it). We won't know the results for probably another week after that, but so far anyone I've told about what happened has said it sounds just like a seizure. So, right now, it's just wait & see....