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From: maggie
I would be very skeptical that your daughter is having seizures. When a person faints from vasovagal, it is not uncommon to have some limited seizure like movements. They won't be the full blown convulsions that might indicate epilepsy (although if you're "out" long enough you can have an anoxic seizure due to lack of oxygen to the brain). People will often have some twitching or muscle rigidy. This is what happens to me and I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy for 20 years! The side effects of the anti-seizure drugs can be very bad, so I really wouldnt recommend taking them unless you really know it's epilepsy. I was put on dilantin for 10 years and felt it actually made me worse! One of the more decerning factors is actually what happens AFTER the event. If there is prolonged confusion or extreme sleepiness after, that is more indicative of apilepsy. If there is brief or no confusion, that is more indicative of fainting. ALso with fainting there may be a lot of other autonomic symptoms, such as nausea, pallor, sweating, (but not always). IF the EEG test shows the "spike wave pattern" that is definately epilepsy, anything else on the EEG is not indicative (but doesnt rule it out either). SInce she already had a positive Tilt table test then that seems like the obvious answer. There are a few things she can do, like more salt and lots of water to keep her blood volume up. And there are a few drugs that help some people but not all. She also might try keeping a diary of everything surrounding the event to see if there are any patterns...foods eaten (allergy), food not eaten (hypoglycemia, dehydrated, sleep patterns, other symptoms she felt before, things like that. Maggie