HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

My son--ADHD severe and epilepsy, Med question

Support Forums
>
Epilepsy
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/19/2007 2:50 AM (GMT 0)
Hi--

My son has severe ADHD and epilepsy focal in P3 and he is having a time of it with ADHD medicine and epilepsy medicine.  He's stopped taking his Adderall and is flunking out of school and having behavioral problems and knows he needs something, but says it stops working too soon and wears off forever and he feels bad for ever on it and only gets a good hour out.  He's on extended release.  Does anyone here have ADHD and a seizure disorder?  What medicines are you able to take?  We are also considering adding an antinausea drug to the mix to help him with the nausea from the trileptal and to make him drowsy from the other meds.  Any ideas or experiences would be appreciated.  Its a really delicate balance going on here and his quality of life is very bad with either condition untreated, so somehow we have to find a solution.  Thanks in advance for any help you can give and I hope this post finds everyone doing well.

Posted 10/25/2007 9:34 PM (GMT 0)

Hiya Marji,

Hope all is well?

I was just reading your post.

My daughter Ellie, started having seizures at the age of 2 after lots of tests and well over a year later she was finally diagnosed with Epilepsy (this was just 3 months ago)

Prior to this we found out Ellie had an under-sized piturity gland. This has caused Ellie to have an under active thyroid, low growth hormone and a low stress hormone all of which she has to take medication for the rest of her life.

She has always been a bright girl and had an urge to want to learn, she was completely clean day and night before her 2nd birthday.

Before her 3rd birthday she was completing puzzles for a 4 year old with no help.

She could also write her name before her 3rd birthday and work her way round the internet better than her grand parents.

However after being diagnosed with Epilepsy 3 months ago, she was started on medication straight away, first Tegrtol which made her very very sleepy.

She has now been changed to Epilim, and her behaviour has become very very challenging indeed.

I am a qualified nursery nurse and have worked with children all my life, but I beleive Ellie isn't as normal as any other child as I have never experienced this behaviour before. It is worse than the terrible twos.

I haven't mentioned it to the Doc or consultant yet as she has only been on the Epilim for 2 months but after researching the internet both myself and my partner think she may have ADHD.

When was your son diagnosed with ADHD?

Was it when he started his medication?

I was told that Epilim is used to control behaviour in some children but I finding it very hard to deal with Ellie.

Being as she is only 3 I feel she is only going to get worse.

Her concentration has become terrible, she will not (& cannot) sit and do a puzzle any more. On the way to doing a task she forgets what she is going to do!

She does not listen to a thing we say! A second after explaining to her that she shouldn't be doing something she is doing it!

When talking to her, it is like talking to a brick wall and there is no one there.

Is ths the same thing with your son?

How old is your son?

Dee eyes

Posted 10/26/2007 12:14 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Dee--
My son is nineteen now, but he was four when he was diagnosed. We were fortunate in that I was seeing a psychologist as I was going through chemo therapy and on witnessing my son for a few minutes, she suggested testing for him. There are several things that you can look at and get a feel for if your child really truly has adhd (I don't know about add, but I suspect the same may hold true). First, ask your child to draw a picture of a man. My son drew a very crude stick man very quickly and sloppily, arms legs body round head smile and two eyes, crooked and stuff. At four, a child should be able to draw some hands and other features, but the adhd child doesn't have the patience or whatever. Also, handwriting is another thing. If her handwriting is very very sloppy and it almost seems like she has trouble holding the pencil and draws letters from the bottom up and backwards and they are very sloppy (I mean like big strokes very sloppy) and on the administration of ritalin her handwriting and drawing improve greatly, then its a pretty safe bet that she will test for adhd. My psychologist had me witness these things and I could not believe the difference in his handwriting and drawing. It is really strange how that works. If your daughter really is ADHD then she may actually act like a different person off meds, make bad decisions off meds and even look different. My son also has epilepsy in the parietal lobe which effects his reasoning unfortunately and he makes bad decisions much of the time. Also, at nineteen, he doesn't like taking his ADHD medicine. I would definitely make sure you get your daughter properly tested and not just let a doc "try some meds" on her. She will need the test results for school and once she starts on medication, it would be difficult to tell afterward if she really needed it because the medicine can make them worse when it wears off sometimes. Talking to my son is always like talking to a brick wall, even now, and even with medication, it doesn't always get better because the medication makes them focus so much, they may ignore you because of that sometimes, but it is definitely better. In my sons' case he has orthostatic low blood pressure which may be causing his epilepsy if they would ever run the right tests and the adderall raises his blood pressure to a good level as well. My son would seem to ignore me but then when I asked him what I said he would repeat it word for work, he had learned at four to multitask and to be a bit of a wise guy. The behavior you describe could be true adhd or maybe a result of her epilepsy medicine, so I would definitely get her tested. Best of luck to you both and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
Posted 10/26/2007 11:55 AM (GMT 0)

Hiya Marji,

Thank you for the response and the info.

With your son being 19 obviously he can tell you how is feeling and you have been living with the symptoms for 15 years now.

I will speak to Ellie's consultant and see what they say.

When we ask her to draw people they normally have a big head with eyes nose and mouth and the amrs and legs are sticks that come from the side of the face and the bottom of the face.

With ehr writing she can write her name but sometimes she begins writing her name and runs out of room and she puts the ie before the E ( like this eiEll)

She can write things on the computer with ease.

But as I said when we talk to her it is like speaking to a brick wall.

I will speak to a speacialist.

Take care and thanks again.

Hugs

Dee

Posted 10/26/2007 8:01 PM (GMT 0)
Dee--
It's more like the squiggliness or shakiness in her writing and how she forms her letters, though my son runs out of room too. My son's hand writing without his medicine at 19 looks like a first grader's with some problems. With medicine, it is much better. On the picture, are the eyes just dots and the nose just a dot and mouth just a curved line? shw doesn't bother to draw hands, feet or hair or anything else, it sounds like the adhd kind of drawing. i think its harder with girls because we are urged to try so so so hard to be neat, there's alot of peer pressure there for girls whereas little boye think its funny sometimes to be really sloppy and messy. Well take care and I wish you and Ellie great success.
Posted 2/16/2017 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
I am a diagnosed grand mal seizure patient, I was diagnosed with severe ADD &a ADHD before I had seizures, I am still on my adderrall for my ADD & ADHD as well as my seizure medicine. I take zofran for Naseua and I can usually take any meds im subscribed. My doctor and all doctors are suppose to work around the meds that you are given for your seizures
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply