Teenagers with epilepsy

[PaulaSB12]

I have a work colleague who has 18 year old sons going to Florida this year with friends. They are not driving but have to take medicine twice a day at 9am and 9pm. How do people manage with medicine and the time difference?

 

[tobikaye]

I know some people will keep the same schedule when in a different time zone. This just means that sometimes they have to set an alarm for in the night to get up and take their medicine. Others will usually check with their doctors to see if they can safely change the schedule in which they take their medicine. Sometimes to change the time, they have to gradually adjust over a specific time frame. Doing this also means having to gradually adjust once they are back in their normal timezone.

I would suggest if they do not want to have to get up in the middle of the night to take their medicine, that they check with a doctor to see if any adjustments can be made to help.

 

[krisnme]

I wear a second watch with an alarm set to our home time. usually the difference is not that much (1 or 2 hours) and the dr. says to just start dosing on our first full day using local time.

 

[loadsapixiedust]

We are also from the UK, we adjust our DS's epilepsy meds by a little each day for several weeks before we travel so we can get him on a Florida time schedule by the time we travel, the same in reverse on the return. I suggest you speak to your GP first as there can be quite a lot of leeway with most meds but some are more time sensitive.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

I am epeleptic as is DS24 and DD15. The advice you have been given is all good. I will ad though that she should not let herself get dehydrated while in the parks or to tired. This will lower the siezure threshold. So she should plan some downtime and not do the parks commando. We take a small luggage tag an attach it to our kids belt loops. DS still uses it. On it we put his name, age, height, weight, disorder, meds and dosages, and the time he takes it. In the event of a grandmal siezure the person may be extremley disoriented and not be able to tell a paramedic what they need to know. A medical alert braclet is fine but it also will not give the pertinent infor. Also the people she is traveling with should know where this is so that in the event of a seizure they can alert the paramedic or whoever is attending. They should also be told to watch for severe tiredness or stress to remind her to take a break. When I was a teen we were advised to not tell anyone, not school officals, teachers no one. Fortunatly I was savy enough to alert a group of my friends so when I was with them they would know to look for warning signs. With my kids we know enough to make others aware. You can have a very normal life living with epilepsy if you pay attention and follow your doctors directions. It has never slowed us down. It may take a little longer to get a drivers license and I cannot give blood, it is one of my triggers. If I can help with anymore advice feel free to pm me.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Our son also has epilepsy but thankfully hasn't had any problems for 4 years now.
However, we still give him medicine twice daily.
To be honest on the flight to Orlando we give him a dose before we fly off and then another close to the end. Pretty much at our normal times.

The following day he has one in the morning and then one early evening.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

With teenagers those around them need to know the warning singns and be aware. They are very capable of deciding on their own that they just do not want to take meds any more. Of my 3 kids 2 have siezures. The one that does not has a friend who decided to do this. He died six months later after having a siezure while standing at the end of a dock. He fell into the water and was not able to call for help. So please make sure that the others with her know what to do.

 

[SueM in MN]

I am epeleptic as is DS24 and DD15. The advice you have been given is all good. I will ad though that she should not let herself get dehydrated while in the parks or to tired. This will lower the siezure threshold. So she should plan some downtime and not do the parks commando. We take a small luggage tag an attach it to our kids belt loops. DS still uses it. On it we put his name, age, height, weight, disorder, meds and dosages, and the time he takes it. In the event of a grandmal siezure the person may be extremley disoriented and not be able to tell a paramedic what they need to know. A medical alert braclet is fine but it also will not give the pertinent infor. Also the people she is traveling with should know where this is so that in the event of a seizure they can alert the paramedic or whoever is attending. They should also be told to watch for severe tiredness or stress to remind her to take a break. When I was a teen we were advised to not tell anyone, not school officals, teachers no one. Fortunatly I was savy enough to alert a group of my friends so when I was with them they would know to look for warning signs. With my kids we know enough to make others aware. You can have a very normal life living with epilepsy if you pay attention and follow your doctors directions. It has never slowed us down. It may take a little longer to get a drivers license and I cannot give blood, it is one of my triggers. If I can help with anymore advice feel free to pm me.

Dehydration is one of the major things that can lower the seizure threshold (how much it takes to trigger a seizure).
Also, becoming overtired - not really walking too much, but lack of sleep, so the amount of sleep the person gets is very important.

Those generic 'medic alert’ bracelets you can order on the internet or find in a Pharmacy don’t give any specific information. But, the ones from the Medic Alert Foundation do. They are custom engraved and also include a 24 hour a day contact 800 phone number that first responders can call to get more complete information. First responders (EMS, Emergency Rooms) are trained to look for Medic Alert bracelets and necklaces. I would highly recommend official Medic Alert:
ttp://www.medicalert.org/

With teenagers those around them need to know the warning singns and be aware. They are very capable of deciding on their own that they just do not want to take meds any more. Of my 3 kids 2 have siezures. The one that does not has a friend who decided to do this. He died six months later after having a siezure while standing at the end of a dock. He fell into the water and was not able to call for help. So please make sure that the others with her know what to do.

A friend of my DH’s decided that he might not need his medication any more and wanted to see what would happen if he stopped it.
He found out alright! He had a Grand Mal seizure, luckily not while driving. He was walking with my DH when it happened. My DH did not know he had seizures and did call 911; luckily the friend was not hurt (except his pride).

 

[honugirl]

I really like the luggage tag idea! I think I'm going to use it when I go in March. I'll attach it to my purse.

I am one who thought of going with MedicAlert, but then I talked to first responders around me and know the head of an EMT program and was told by them not to bother getting one because most of the time they don't have time to call the phone number. They told me to get just a generic medical bracelet with the basics on it and then put see wallet or something like that on it with a card in my purse with all my meds and info. Even in the ER, they don't always have time to call the # or the staff to do it. It could be just a regional thing though.

 

[SueM in MN]

I really like the luggage tag idea! I think I'm going to use it when I go in March. I'll attach it to my purse.

I am one who thought of going with MedicAlert, but then I talked to first responders around me and know the head of an EMT program and was told by them not to bother getting one because most of the time they don't have time to call the phone number. They told me to get just a generic medical bracelet with the basics on it and then put see wallet or something like that on it with a card in my purse with all my meds and info. Even in the ER, they don't always have time to call the # or the staff to do it. It could be just a regional thing though.

I know all the hospitals in my area and even the EMS people do look for and use the Medic Alert bracelets. They may not have time to call right away (which may be why the first responders and head of the EMT program told you not to bother with it - when those people are seeing the patient, they don’t need or use anything more than the very basic which you can get from a generic one).
I do know that when the patient is stabilized or in the ER they do use the phone number to get further information in all the ERs around here. One of the specific things they use it for is to get a medication and physician list.

 

[tinkfan72]

hiya , i am also epileptic have ben since the age of 4 , i went to florida for the first time in 09 it was my first time with a diffrent time zone like that but all i did was switch to local time and i was fine took it easy for a few days , but its the best thing i ever did and am doing again this sep lol yeah i gt the disney bug now lol , and as for teen with epilepsy i can gt that to they do go through the stage of trying to fit it without epilepsy its hard enough but with it its even harder i went through it also , but they all get there just takes time its a lot to ajust to even if u have had it all your life . xx tinkfan72

 

[mickey&minniealways]

hiya , i am also epileptic have ben since the age of 4 , i went to florida for the first time in 09 it was my first time with a diffrent time zone like that but all i did was switch to local time and i was fine took it easy for a few days , but its the best thing i ever did and am doing again this sep lol yeah i gt the disney bug now lol , and as for teen with epilepsy i can gt that to they do go through the stage of trying to fit it without epilepsy its hard enough but with it its even harder i went through it also , but they all get there just takes time its a lot to ajust to even if u have had it all your life . xx tinkfan72

I agree. You can do it without problems if you pay attention and take your doctors advice. Most of it is just common sense anyway. And by the way welcome to the dis.