Head Drop Seizures

The majority of Raquel's seizures are called tonic seizures, where she'll suddenly get stiff as a board, raise her arms over her head, her face will grimace and typically get very red. Sometimes her eyes will start to roll back, and she becomes very unresponsive. But there is no visible shaking during these tonic seizures. They last anywhere between 30 seconds to a couple minutes from start to finish, and afterwards, although tired, will usually just go about her business. I do pretty well with these and don't tend to freak out too much anymore. Gabby may say different...

Then there are the myoclonic ones, where she has a jerking or twitching of a muscle group - almost always her arms. These are brief, and she responds well afterwards for the most part.

She also has some called tonic-clonic seizures. These are the ones that are referred to as "grand mal seizures", where the "blue factor" can come into play, and I totally freak. Fortunately, these are not as often. She'll start out getting all stiff (the tonic phase), and then the arms and legs jerk rapidly and rhythmically (clonic phase). Her lips and/or cheeks sometimes begin to turn blue due to lack of oxygen, and she often loses bladder control. These can last up to 3 minutes - for her - and consciousness returns very slowly. When she does come to, she appears very drowsy, disoriented, confused, and sometimes aggitated. She always wants to sleep. Gabby handles all of these seizure types like a pro.

Earlier this week, after having one of her tonic-clonic seizures, I posted about atypical behavior she was showing afterwards and that she had these weird head jerks. These are unfortunately head drop seizures.

This morning on our way to school, Gabby kept looking at Raquel in the backseat and I could tell she was concerned about something. She said Raquel started to drool a bit - which is not normal for her unless a seizure has occurred. Then she started dropping her head. She must have had 20 head drop seizures in the 10 minute drive to her school. At one point, Gabby was timing them at happening every 12 seconds. I, shockingly, handled these pretty well. I guess it's because the duration is so short - just a few seconds or so. But this is the first time I have ever seen Gabby get visibly upset. She started crying and climbed in the backseat to hold her sister and kept asking her what was wrong and if she was okay.

I immediately did a u-turn at Raquel's school so I could take her home and watch her. She was done with therapy for the week and Friday is just a play day for her, so she wasn't missing out on much except for social activities - and me being able to go to work. But I felt it was best to keep an eye on her.

I don't know why she has developed these seizures now. Nothing has changed medication or diet wise. Perhaps it's just another side effect from the medication. I am so thankful to have joined these online support groups, and am actually looking forward to meeting with the Keto Nutritionist to see what other options are available.