RAD or Seizure?

The Girl had a follow up EEG earlier this week and her Neurologist called today with the results.  It seems  her tests shows she definitely has some abnormalities in her frontal lobes that indicate she is at risk for seizures.  In short, her diagnosis of frontal lobe seizure disorder, given after her hospital stay in May, stands.  I was hoping they’d say that the EEG was fine, and that the seizures were a temporary condition, but I guess  I will have to get used to epilepsy just being another in a series of challenges my daughter has to face.

So, as I  am prone to do, I have been Googling  frontal lobe seizure disorder for as much information as I can find so I can learn more about this condition and how to help my daughter.

And now I’m perplexed.  Here’s why.

My daughter has had a diagnosis of Inhibited Reactive Attachment Disorder since we adopted her at age four.  Symptoms of this disorder include:

  • Lack of response / apathy
  • Poor social skills
  • Poor sense of humor
  • Avoidance behavior
  • Contradictory responses
  • Poor language skills
  • Poor attention

The symptoms of frontal lobe seizure disorder include:

  • Lack of response
  • Poor sense of humor
  • Contradictory responses
  • Poor language processing / cognitive skills
  • Poor memory
  • Poor social skills (due to the above)
  • Facial grimacing at time of seizure, or other asymmetrical body posturing

So now I wonder.  Is what we were seeing as RAD all these years really the “side effects” of having seizures that weren’t big enough for anyone to notice? Because frontal lobe seizure disorder doesn’t appear as more common temporal lobe seizures do – full body or appendage jerking – did we just miss it until she had a really big one back in May?

She’s been on Keppra, a newer anti-seizure medication, since her hospitalization in May, and I’m happy to report that we have only seen one seizure since then.  And then I wonder, after the EEG results and my research, if it’s really just the one.  I’m trying to resist watching her like a hawk to see if I can tell.  She is 17  years old, after all, and what 17 year old wants their mother hovering over them every waking moment? I am going to fire off an email to her teachers, however, to see if they notice a difference in her attention and behavior in class than was seen last year, as she has at least two teachers this year the same as last year.  She will have to deal with just a little helicopter parenting.

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2 Comments
  1. Cinda 43 years ago
  2. Chrisa Hickey 43 years ago