So my son is 3 years old almost 4 and he is diagnosed with epilepsy, what do I do now? We had not yet finalized the adoption of my two sons when the oldest one is diagnosed with epilepsy. When we called our social worker to let her know what the neurologist said she actually asked if we wanted to stop the adoption process! I am still shocked to this day that we were even asked that question. If we had a biological child would I give them up if they had a disability? Would anyone really give up a child because of epilepsy? Never mind the fact that we loved them since the first time we met them. I could not even imagine life without them.
Now we are parents of an epileptic child what did that actually mean? Was their going to be any restrictions for my son? Is he going to grow up and live a normal life?
I need to find out as much as I can about epilepsy; this was my son I need to know everything I can. Don’t I owe him that? I started researching epilepsy, types of epilepsy, causes, treatments etc. There is so much information on the web about everything so to no surprise I found lots of information. I started by trying to find out about the type of seizures that he was having.
Remember I did not see him falling on the floor in a spasm, all he was doing was doing is zoning out. He was not just being a normal 3 years old he was actually having an absence seizure. Absence seizures are also known as petit mal seizure. There are two types of absence seizures; simple and complex. With a simple absence seizure the child “blanks out” for up to 20 seconds at a time. They don’t hear people calling their names; they don’t know what is happening around them. There is no confusion or pain they may just be confused why you keep calling his name. The other type of absence seizures is called complex absence seizures. With complex absence seizure not only does the person zone out but they also do repetitive motions. The person may blink a lot or like my son he would rub his fingers together. Absence seizures begin and end without a spasm and many times people do not even know the child is having a seizure.