Seizures, how do you know when they are from low blood sugar or from epilepsy?

At just barely before 7 am this morning I woke up because Westin woke up. Aaron, my nephew, spent the night last night and Westin wanted to camp out in the living room last night. Of course, Wieland also thought that was a great idea. Jason, being the protective parent that he is, especially since the epilepsy diagnosis, wanted me to sleep out here with the boys. I didn't mind as I find the couch more comfortable than my bed.

Wieland was a little pisser. He kept everyone awake longer than any of us wanted. He was just so excited to sleep next to his big cousin, Aaron. I kept getting after him and finally just turned the tv off after I was done watching Tori and Dean. Even then it took a little while to get that little monster off to dream land. In the meantime, Westin was trying really hard to go to sleep, and here is the key-stay asleep. He knows that being over tired can lead to seizures and he is very mindful to not stay up too late anymore. So finally about midnight everyone was sleeping.

Back to the 7am wake up. I noticed Westin sit up and I hadn't checked his sugar in a few hours (we didn't have his cgms on) so I was highly alert to him, always wondering what his blood sugar is doing. This morning he didn't seem right. So I got up to get him something to drink, thinking his sugar was low. I was really alarmed. He really wasn't right and I knew I had to get him something quick. As soon as I headed towards the kitchen I could see the seizure starting. He was fully alert though and trying to talk to me, even still sitting up. I knew I couldn't really give him juice as he was having this small seizure that was affecting his mouth. I decided I would go grab the glucose gel, thinking I could just squirt it in his mouth. I couldn't find it. Westin will testify that I was running in circles around the kitchen to the dinning room, rummaging through my purse thinking the gel might be in there. (I never found it and I am sure I have some in my purse, but in the moment could not find it!) I looked back in the living room and the seizure had stopped. I thought, "Good! Now I can give him some juice." But I also thought, "Why did he stop seizing? Maybe his liver kicked in." It never occurred to me that this was an epileptic seizure. I am just not conditioned to think of it. I had him start sipping the juice and as those thoughts went through my head I decided maybe I better check his sugar...120...definitely not a low sugar reaction. It dawned on me that he just had another epileptic seizure! It had been since the end of May and I guess I had gotten comfortable, thinking the meds would completely control them. It really never crossed my mind at the moment of the seizure that it wasn't a low seizure.

In retrospect I guess I am relieved that it wasn't a low. Low seizures I think would do more damage than a benign rolandic seizure. Westin was a little shaken up after. It took him a few minutes to have full control of his speech, meaning he didn't speak right, like his mouth didn't move right. So when he was able to talk and be understood, he expressed kind of the same feeling I did. He was finally comfortable that he wouldn't have a seizure. He actually said, "Great, now I am going to start worrying about going to sleep again."

I have a call into the neurologist to see if we need to up his dosage or wait to see if it happens again. It was very mild and if my kid didn't have diabetes it probably wouldn't have seemed like such a big deal. It lasted maybe 15 seconds. I feel some more grey hairs earned this morning! :)