Sleep Deprived EEG

[2tired2argue]

difficult child 2 has a Sleep Deprived EEG for Wednesday. We received the instructions and I will have to call the Neurologist for instructions because I am not sure if I need to hold his medications or not. There is no way after giving him his bedtime dose of Vistaril that we can keep him awake very long..
Other than that - anyone ever discover anything helpful from this test?
It is going to be sooo difficult for our family to keep him up and wake up at the ordered time and keep him awake without a rage episode....
sigh
His medical records show blunt head trauma at 12 months and psychiatrist and Neuro want this test to follow up.
I am dreading it already. Any advice?

 

[Nancy423]

We haven't had a sleep deprived test, but difficult child had a 24 hour test. The worst part was the prep with- the wires.

good luck with- it.

 

[klmno]

My son had it- I started a few days ahead of time talking to him about how I dreaded staying up all night but that he would get to watch movies, play games, etc., so he really thought this was a thrilling priviledge! And, we did play games and talk and kept a lot of lights on, music or tv on, etc, so we could both stay awake. I don't remember about medications- but he wasn't on any that made him sleepy anyway.

 

[smallworld]

My daughter A had a sleep-deprived EEG at age 10. We had to keep her up until midnight and then wake her up at 5 am. We watched movies and played games. You could also do late-night shopping (at Target or the grocery store) or go out for ice cream to keep your difficult child awake.

I suspect the neuro will tell you to hold his Vistaril, particularly if it is only given to get him to go to sleep. But you should definitely call and ask before the test.

My daughter's EEG came back negative. Because of your difficult child's suspected head injury, the neuro wants to see if your difficult child is having seizures, which can cause rages. If it is seizures, certain medications (anticonvulsants) can help your difficult child function betterr. Unfortunately, EEGs are not 100 percent accurate; they only measure if the patient is having a seizure at the time of the test. Has your difficult child had an MRI?

Good luck on Wednesday. Let us know how it goes.

 

[totoro]

We just did one about 2 months ago. It wasn't so bad. She started getting a bit agitated towards the end of the night.
I had to keep it fun, movies snacks music etc. We pretty much let her do whatever she wanted!
Getting up on 4 hours of sleep was the hard part
During the EEG she wanted to fall asleep so they kept buzzing her. That was hard.
Hers came back negative as well.
Good luck

 

[susiestar]

I had sleep deprived EEG's done on both of my older kids. It used to be a standard test before a child was put on a stimulant for ADHD, but it no longer is. Being sleep deprived gives the docs a better chance to see seizures.

We played games, watched movies etc... with each child. They were not done at the same time. With my oldest I wanted to rule out any problems. We did not expect to see anything, but he had reacted strangely to some medications and had fallen from a shelf onto his head on a hard gymnasium floor (he was hanging off of a coat rack by his legs in the 2 minutes the teacher and I had our backs turned and he fell right on his head). Nothing was seen in my oldest's EEG.

With my daughter the teacher and my mother were both telling me that daughter had inattentive ADHD. It just didn't feel right to my intuition. I thought something else was going on. So I insisted on seeing the pediatrician neuro BEFORE we used any ADHD medications. We happened to get into the psychiatrist a month before the pediatrician neuro, and they gave us TONS of strattera samples, thinking I would cave if the medications were there. But I didn't. We had the EEG and then they called us to come in to talk.

Never a good sign. Turns out my daughter does NOT have inattentive type ADHD. She has Absence Epilepsy with a few features of more serious seizures. It took a full YEAR to get her sensitive system titrated up to the right level of anti-seizure medications. But now, as long as she doesn't forget her medications, you would never know there is a problem!

This can be a VERY valuable test. Be sure to follow the no caffeine rule and any other dietary rules. We actually went out to eat before Dad and the boys got up that day, just so I could keep her awake in the morning.

I hope that if there are seizure issues they are caught by this EEG. If you think there are problems that are not caught by this EEG, you can push for a longer EEG and that may catch more. At one point we did an 8 hour EEG, but after 4 hours they unhooked her and sent us on our way - they had LOTS of activity and so didn't need the extra time.

GEtting the glue out is the hardest part. I found using a hot oil treatment helped the glue slip right out.

 

[TerryJ2]

Wish I could help, just wanted to lend support.
You've gotten some great comments here!

 

[2tired2argue]

Thanks for the advice and insight. I am so glad I found you guys!!!