Second Seizure

It happened this morning, around 11 AM. Ironically, my wife had taken my daughter in for a follow-up visit at the pediatrician that morning, an hour before the seizure occurred, and naturally nothing seemed wrong at all, so she dropped my daughter off at school. She's been back at her special school for autistic children since she was released from the hospital on the Fourth of July (as I wrote about in my previous posts, Autism and Seizures, Seizure Synchronicity, and An Uncertain Independence Day).

Before she was released, the folks at my daughter's school assured us that they have protocols for dealing with seizures, but I won't get into that here.

So, my little girl is back at the hospital in Hackensack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack (reference to that Billy Joel song, in case you didn't get it), hooked up to the EEG wires again, with the bandages keeping the wires in place and making her look like a little old lady with her hair in curlers and hairnet, except there's this long trail of gauze leaving her head, like a bizarre ponytail, or one of those alien chicks from Star Wars. It's more video EEG, which means that she (and we) are under surveillance in her room at all times, that is, the cameras running, it's all being recorded, so if she has a seizure or suspicious activity, it can be reviewed. And there will be some more tests coming tomorrow, maybe an MRI.

She may also be getting some music therapy. I'm not sure yet what that's all about.

We were never 100% sure what happened with the first incident, since we only found her after the fact, but this second seizure happened in the presence of my daughter's teacher, so now its clearcut (and fortunately, there was no physical injury this time, unlike last time when one of her teeth was almost knocked out). Since there was no recurrence when she was hospitalized the first time round, the epilepsy specialist decided to let her go without medication. Now, it's pretty much definite that she will be taking medication from now on, for a prolonged period of time, probably indefinitely, maybe forever. But first they want to try to learn more about the kind of seizures she's having, as this would influence what medication will be prescribed.

This whole business is so unpredictable. No one knows anything, it seems. They say that a seizure is like an electrical storm in the brain. It's like the brain has a climate, has weather of its own. And that's the thing about weather, right?, forecasting is often educated guesswork, everyone talks about the weather and no one can really do all that much about it. Just, take an umbrella, or take some drugs.