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eeg to check for seizures
does anyone have a little one who has seizures? dd is having an eeg on Friday. long story but it's kind of been an emotional roller coaster around here. when she is getting tired or after she's startled (like after a sneeze), she will do these head drops. it's scary.
we want to get her in for her eeg asap. unfortunately she has been sick with a fever, ear infection and cough. we had one scheduled for tuesday but had to cancel. she was up a ton last night and i don't know about keeping her up again tonight (it's a sleep deprived test. up from 5pm-11pm the night before, down till 4:30am, up until test at 9:30).
any words of advice?
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Re: eeg to check for seizures
My daughter has had three eegs for her seizures. Do not forget to bring something she likes to sleep with. Her teddy, her fav bedtime book etc. They will probably try to get her to sleep so keep her up until the test. I almost cried the first time seeing all the wires on her head so if your're emotional just try to be calm. It goes a lot quicker than I expected.
Good Luck!
DS2 has had two done (he is 11 months currently was 5 months old at his first EEG and 9 months at his second).
The EEGs were done at different hospitals and they were done very differently as far as prep. The first one we were asked to get him up 4 hours early and keep him up (both EEGs have been sleep deprivation tests) until the EEG test. The second one we put him to bed two hours later and got him up two hours earlier and kept him up until the test (both tests were at 8:30am).
You do need to keep her up. They want the babies sleep deprived for a snapshot EEG (which it sounds like you are getting) because they want to watch them fall asleep on the EEG so they can watch brain waves heading in and coming out of rest. DS2 slept most of the way through his second EEG and they were very pleased with how the test went. I would suggest (if you think she'll sleep) trying to put her down and let her sleep normally but get her up 4 hours early, you can call the EEG place and make sure that it's okay, as long as she is sleep deprived they shouldn't care how it was done.
Good Luck and bring a bottle or sippy for her to put herself to sleep, she'll probably be on your lap so blanket, lovey and sippy were the recipe to get my little man to conk out
Oh thanks you guys. This is all really helpful. I am kind of a freak show right now, as you can imagine. The worst part is seeing her do these things and not knowing what is going on. And the worry that something is wrong with my prescious dd. I love her so much!
She usually goes to bed at 8pm so I might just try to get her to stay up until 10 and then get her up at 4:30/5 for a 9:30 test. I will bring her blanket, bunny and bottle. Great advice! I don't know how we are going to keep her awake in the car ride!
Did you both have to wait 2-3 days to get the results? They told me that a doctor will read the results within 48 hours, call our doctor and they will call us within 24 hours. I am going to see if I can get that sped up. I am supposed to be on a plane for Washington DC on Monday at 6am and would really prefer to get the results before then if possible.
How long of a car ride is it? My husband and I, with our older son, took DS2 to his EEGs, I sat in the back seat with the boys and kept talking to DS2. If he started to fall asleep I'll admit I played ringtones on my cell phone to help keep him awake.
We definitely did not get results within a few days. Took a couple weeks, our EEGs were sent to a separate neurologist who read them then he sent the report to DS2s neuro and we got the results at our appts, which were usually a couple weeks after the appts. I know our neuro won't give us any news over the phone.
The first two we had to wait a few weeks for the result. They had to be sent to a neuro who read them who relayed them to a pedi then to us. Now that we deal directly with a neuro its within one week. Waiting does suck but I always think "no news is good news".
Definitly bring toys and keep talking to her if she falls asleep fast in car rides.
Hang in there! We are having an EEG tomorrow for seizures that sounds quite simiar. The longest part for us was having the leads attached. Your little one might not like that part, but it really doesn't hurt or anything.
On EEG days I just ride in the back with our LO to keep him awake. It was hard last time but by the time of the test, he was so tired that he just passed out after they got done putting the leads on his head.
As far as when you get the results, I think it depends on what type of siezures they think your LO is having. There are certain types of seizures that are worse than others, and if it's the worse ones, they may want the EEG read sooner so treatment can start sooner. For us, a neurologist came in and read the teat as it was happening. If the techs notice anything of concern, they will have someone look at it ASAP.
Hang in there! Our LO has been having seizures again for a month now and I'm just starting to get past that horrible rock in the pit of my stomach feeling. The worry never goes away, but it does get a little less over time. For me the change came when we got some answers and a plan for what we were going to do to stop them.
Good luck!
Carson has had 7-ish. I can't remember exactly. Tips I have are:
Make sure hair is clean so the leads stick well.
Bring a few washcloths with you (soft ones) for head clean-up after (theirs are usually scratchy)
Bring a change of clothes. Our EEG tech always used water to soften the tape up before pulling it off and it usually got his onesie wet.
Bring whatever you need to make him comfortable to sleep, blankets, loveys, etc.
Good luck!
My daughter has had quite a few now. She gets a little fussy while they are putting the leads on, it takes quite awhile for them to measure the head and mark where to put them and then to attach them all. We've been lucky and she usually falls asleep as soon as they are hooked up because she's exhausted by that point. I got emotional the first time she had an EEG because there are so many wires.
We get our results pretty quick. Her seizures were the kind she needed to be admitted to the hospital for, so they didn't waste any time and read it while she was having it done. But now that she has follow up EEG's we usually get the results the next day.
Good luck!