Gabrielle’s first seizure was on April 30th 2007. I was nursing her at the library under a light blanket and when I removed the blanket to burp her she was lying limp in my arms with her eyes rolled back and twitching slightly. She wasn’t breathing and was unresponsive. She was seen at WakeMed and monitored throughout the night. The doctors felt it was an episode of reflux and probably not a seizure.
Two weeks later Gabrielle had 7 more episodes like the first and was seen by Dr. Wooten, a pediatric neurologist. She had an EEG sleep study done. The EEG showed epileptic potentials which indicated frontal lobe partial seizures. She was scheduled for an MRI to see if there was any malformation or cyst in the frontal lobe. We were told to begin anti-convulsant meds right away to control the seizures. The doc said it is difficult to make a long term prognosis at this point. It will depend on how she responds to the medicine, etc. Despite everything she seemed to be content and happy which was a blessing. The doctor also said it was good we caught them early and the fact that she has developed normally to this point is good.
We had the elders of our church pray over Gabrielle and all of our friends and family were praying. We asked for God’s guidance about whether to begin the meds. If Gabrielle continued to seize that would be God telling us to begin meds. On May 21st Gabrielle had 2 more seizures and we began giving the anticonvulsant Trileptal. She was scheduled to have an MRI on June 7th to see if there was any visible cause for the seizures. All were praying that the anticonvulsant controlled the seizures and that it didn’t have any unwanted side effects. We began to pray that the MRI didn’t reveal any major malformations.
May 31st she had 2 more seizures so we needed to increase her medication dosage again. She was still adjusting to the last increase so we prayed she would tolerate the new dosage, that it would control her seizures, and that we wouldn’t see any side effects. The MRI was scheduled for the following day to rule out any abnormalities that may have been causing the seizures After researching complex partial seizures it was difficult to know what outcome to specifically pray for. God knows what is in my heart though and He knew I wanted the very best possible outcome for my daughter. I just kept reminding myself that He loves her more than I am even capable of.
Kelly