Jackson was born on January 18, 2011. After a year and a half of trying, and crying, and praying for a baby, pregnancy went smoothly, but delivery was traumatic for Jackson and mommy. He had torticollis, plagiocephaly and bracheocephaly. Jackson had physical therapy starting at 4 months. Then at 6 months began wearing a helmet. At 9 months the helmet came off and life rolled along.
Fast forward to the age of 3 and it started to appear that Jackson would ignore me at times or just zone out for a few seconds at a time. At first my husband and I thought it was some sort of attention span problem, or a behavior to avoid having to do what I was asking. Then it happened while in the middle of playing t-ball with dad in the back yard. Jackson ran two steps, stopped, shook a little and got the glazed eye look. At that point I knew it wasn’t just zoning out or ignoring me. The next day I asked the daycare teacher if she had noticed anything similar happening with Jackson. She said no, but that a child years ago was doing something similar and that it was a type of seizure. I had never heard of anything like this. I called the pediatrician and he didn’t even want to see Jackson; he wanted us to just go straight to the neurologist. Which made me nervous.
After an EEG, Jackson was diagnosed with Absence Seizures. He has now seen 4 neurologists, 3 holistic doctors, and received cranio-sacral and chiropractic therapy. We’ve tried many elimination diets, different food and vitamin supplements, and now the ketogenic diet. With the ketogenic diet, the seizure activity has decreased, but isn’t gone. Jackson has another appointment this month, and we know that the likelihood of medication is still there.
Jackson is a fun, silly, smart, and active child. Here’s to hoping we find the best treatment for his seizures so he can continue to be the amazing boy he his.
MAR