Our first thought was that she just had the attention span of . .well. . .a 6 year old. And we encouraged her to "pay attention" and assumed as she grew up, she'd learn to pay attention to people around her and it wasn't a big deal.
Then I wondered if she had a hearing problem. . .but at her 6 year well check in September, her hearing came back just fine and I went back to dismissing her inattention to being 6.
However. . .it wasn't getting better. It was getting worse. No matter how many times we told her to pay attention, she just . . .missed things that we were saying to her. Over Christmas Holidays we noticed something else, when having a direct conversation with her - sometimes she would miss a sentence or two, blink her eyes and then ask "What?". . .or she would be talking and just stop, blink her eyes and start talking again - often about something totally unrelated.
Off to Google we flew and then to her pediatrician to see if we were right. . .The internet and the pediatrician agreed - it sounded like our little Mischief was having Absence Seizures.
Absence Seizures are just what they sound like - small seizures where the person goes "absent" for a few seconds and then resumes behavior as normal. There is no flailing or jerking of the limbs, and the person doesn't lose consciousness. They just kind of "blank out" for a few seconds. They are most common in children (girls specifically) and manifest generally around ages 5-7. They can have hundreds of them a day and are more frequent when tired or ill.
SO. Our pediatrician sent us for an EEG and referred us to a pediatric neurologist. Mischief thought the EEG was kind of fun. We teased her that they were going to hook her up to machines to turn her into a zombie. She was very brave and at the end of the EEG when they woke her up (she had to sleep for part of the test), she turned to F and held out her arms and said "BRAINS!!!!"
The neurologist confirmed that the EEG showed the presence of Absence Seizures. He sent us home with some daily medication and referred us for some additional tests. The first was an MRI of the brain - slightly freaky to go home from radiology with a CD with 300 pictures of your child's brain - to make sure there wasn't anything abnormal in the brain causing the seizures. The second, a sleep study to make sure she is getting good quality sleep - because being overly tired will make her seizures more frequent. And finally - he sent us home with reassurance: For most children - if the seizures manifest before age 9, they outgrow them during puberty and do not continue to have seizures into adulthood.
So - we started the medication and it definitely makes a difference. The seizures aren't gone completely. . .but they are much fewer and far between. And Mischief. . .took all of this like a champ. She wasted little time fretting about the seizures, takes her medicine without complaint (for the most part. . .she says it tastes gross), and occasionally cuts her eyes with a sneaky smile, holds out her arms towards us, stalks our direction while calling out for our BRAINS.
