A few months back Baby W's pediatrician referred him over to the same neurologist B and Iz see but her schedule is always so full it was a wait to get a new patient appointment with her. The main reason he was going to see her is his balance--he will be fine and really coordinated and then he'll go through periods, at least a few times a week, where he falls constantly, walks into things, even falls over while sitting or standing still. B and Iz were like that as well but they also had moments where they completely blanked out and once those blank moments were identified as absence seizures and they went on medicine, their balance and coordination improved tremendously.
W doesn't have those other symptoms that would suggest seizures. However, because two siblings suffer from seizures, W is going to do a sleep deprived two hour EEG (and won't it be fun to keep him awake!) just to see if there's anything going on. For both B and Iz, their short EEGs (20 minutes for them) showed issues immediately and their 24 hour EEGs confirmed that they had active spots 24/7. The seizure meds calm those spots down and the absence seizures and other symptoms improved.
If the EEG is fine and all of the lab work she ordered for W are fine, it will rule out some possible causes of balance issues. She thinks, based on his symptoms and the timing of his "episodes" that he may possibly be having pain-free migraine activity. I suffer from migraines and apparently that puts all the kids at a 50% risk of developing them as well. Since he has been injuring himself, she is thinking we might want to try a migraine medication and if it stops or greatly reduces his "episodes" that would be a good indication that he having migraine activity. We'll get through all the testing first before we make any decisions.
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