Last July Bill and I started
noticing Buddy was getting headaches quite often. We took him to see his pediatrician and she
said headaches are pretty common for kids his age but he was having trouble
with the eye test so he may need glasses.
If he squints his eyes to see often this will cause more headaches. We took him for his first eye exam last
August and of course as suspected he needed glasses. We got him glasses but the headaches didn’t seem
to be going away.
Bill and I started noticing some
eye rolling, where his eyes would roll up and off to the right. We took him to the pediatrician to discuss
this and she said to keep an eye on it and if any other symptoms come along
with it to bring him back. The YMCA put
on a talent show for the parents and while on stage Bill and I witnessed
something very scary to see as parents.
We watched our son go into a mode of eye rolling and face scrunching
every 20 seconds or more the entire time he was on stage. The first thing I thought was I wonder if he
knew what was happening because It looked like our son was on stage having
seizures but he would keep singing like nothing ever happened. I then
thought about what the other parents were thinking: “what is wrong with this
kid”, “why is he doing that with his face”.
We knew at this point something was
wrong; especially now that he was doing the face scrunching along with the eye
rolling. His pediatrician’s office was
closed so we spoke to the on call doctor who referred us to the children’s emergency
unit at MCV. They took very good care of
my little guy and went over many tests to possibly rule out brain tumors. They sent us to The Children’s Pavilion to
see a neurologist (Dr. Levingston) where we set an appointment for an EEG to be
done (appointment was for August 28th, which is today). Dr. Levingston said she thinks it’s either
Tics or Seizures; the EEG will give us this information. We told her about the frequent headaches which
had gotten worse by then and was told if Buddy starts throwing up with the
headaches to bring him in, which would be more towards migraines.
August 11th his teacher
at the YMCA called and said out of nowhere he grabbed his head and started
crying pointing at the middle of his forehead,
he started throwing up which I immediately remember what Dr. Levingston
said about new symptoms to bring him in; we were back in the children’s unit. They did go ahead with a CT scan which the
results were normal so this was a big weight lifted off my shoulders! The doctor confirmed that he has a case of
severe migraines. Which as anyone who
has migraines knows they are terrible, especially a severe case for a 7 year
old. We still needed to keep the EEG appointment
because although he has the migraines the eye rolling and movements are caused
by something else.
Today was EEG day. We had to wake Buddy up at 2am and keep him
awake until testing time so he could be awake and have the scans watch his brain
activity as he fell asleep. Dr.
Levingston said Buddy does have tics, which can change to many new kinds of
tics over time and between 6 months to a year turn into turrets. So this is something we will need to keep an
eye on. The EEG was a little abnormal
and he has some high spike waves which meant he would be at a greater risk for
a seizure than the average person.
The good news is Buddy is going to
be fine! Bill and I were so worried and
scared thinking the worst when all of this started going on. I only shared this with immediate family when
it first happened because we didn’t want to post anything on FB until we knew some answers. We have gotten many prayers and love through
this time which seemed like forever to get to today. You never know what someone might be going
through and it’s easy to question it because we are all human but If you see my
son making faces, rolling his eyes or having finger movements, don’t ask
yourself “what is wrong with him” just know he is like every other kid with a
little something extra special going on. I'm so thankful I had my family with me
through all of this and know they will be there for whatever else may come along. My son rocks my world and can't tell you how blessed I am to have such an awesome kid in my life! God is truly amazing!
