Way OT Question

[sharlan]

Background - my friend's sil has epilepsy. Lately his 11 yo daughter has been complaining of dizziness, light headed, and feeling like she's outside of her body for very brief moments. She says it doesn't happen often and she feels funny afterwards.

Dad took her to the dr. The dr took her blood pressure lying down, sitting up, and standing up. Dr's diagnosis based on the differing fluctuations in blood pressure is dehydration. Dr claims this is normal in girls this age because they don't want to use the bathroom at school.

Child is to drink 2 bottles of water at school during the day. Dr recommended no further testing be done.

Does this sound right? I have never heard of it before.

[Nurse Jackie]

I've never heard of that happening to a healthy 11yo but I'm no doctor. I personally would get a second opinion.

[Mariahsaint]

I'm not a doctor either, but that sounds a lot like dissociation to me. I have BPD, so I get it occasionally.

[Cat Herder]

Getting a second opinion or requesting a visit with a specialist can't hurt.

It also sounds like Absence Seizure or Partial Absence Seizure. Granted it could also be seasonal allergies or a myriad or other possibilities..

[Mike]

Background - my friend's sil has epilepsy. Lately his 11 yo daughter has been complaining of dizziness, light headed, and feeling like she's outside of her body for very brief moments. She says it doesn't happen often and she feels funny afterwards.

That does sound like it could be epilepsy, especially the bolded part. I had petit mal epilepsy for a few years and her description sounds just like mine did then. I had a bad migraine around 14 yo and started having epilepsy at 15. An inspection showed a blood clot in my brain that they said was likely the cause, and it was probably from the migraine. About 4 years later, they removed the blood clot and my epilepsy was gone.

I say you should get a 2nd opinion, but if you're hesitant on that, wait a few weeks and make sure she is drinking plenty, then if that stops it, the doc could be right, but if it happens again after a few days of good drinking, better get it checked again.

[sharlan]

This is my friend's granddaughter. I have no power to do anything, just wondering if others felt the "diagnosis" was unusual.

The child's father is on a daily medication for epilepsy.

[Thriftylady]

This is my friend's granddaughter. I have no power to do anything, just wondering if others felt the "diagnosis" was unusual.

The child's father is on a daily medication for epilepsy.

I am not sure if that can be hereditary or not. I know my ex had it and neither of my kids do. The only real way to know for sure I think if a brain scan though. I know when my ex had a seizure, they did a brain scan to confirm the epilepsy. They said they couldn't diagnose without that. Granted, this was 24 years or so ago so maybe something has changed.

[Controlled Chaos]

Those could be petit mal seizures. Does she have a neroliogist? Or just a family practitioner? My dh is an epileptic. Those symptoms sound similar to his petit mals, from the outside it just looks like he is zoning out.

[Mike]

from the outside it just looks like he is zoning out.

Yup

I didn't even know I had it at first. In school a teacher would accuse me of daydreaming a few times before something happened that made it obvious something was wrong. The teacher was writing stuff on the board for us to copy in our books. I was writing, apparently "zoned out" for a bit, and kept writing. That night at home, I noticed I had several lines that were just scribbling. That was when I was taken to the doctor and diagnosed.

[Mike]

I am not sure if that can be hereditary or not.

I think that depends on what the cause is.

[Sunchimes]

I can't say either way, but coincidentally, a relative had something similiar this week. She is 12 or 13. She blacked out 3 times and had what they thought were seizures one morning. CT, MRI, etc showed there had been no seizures. They said it was dehydration and maybe some sort of migraine. As far as I've heard, she hasn't had any more episodes. I wonder if "dehydration" is the new catch phrase for "We have no idea."

[Thriftylady]

I can't say either way, but coincidentally, a relative had something similiar this week. She is 12 or 13. She blacked out 3 times and had what they thought were seizures one morning. CT, MRI, etc showed there had been no seizures. They said it was dehydration and maybe some sort of migraine. As far as I've heard, she hasn't had any more episodes. I wonder if "dehydration" is the new catch phrase for "We have no idea."

Well they can't call it "colic" at that age .