I'll be praying for your son and your family. I can tell you my nephew had the same incident at age 17. I happened to be visiting and viewed the scary scene. He was taken to hospital, tested, said he was fine. He is now 54 and never had another incident.

Wow I just read this whole thread.. I am sorry you are all dealing with this, and really have nothing to add in the way of information.....just support. (and if you need worrying done, that's my specialty).

Looking forward to reading no news is good news and that it's just a one time crazy occurrence.

I have no experience with seizures as I never even witnessed any as an RN . I have plenty of ” waiting and worrying” experience and my heart goes out to you and your family. May all be well. Stay strong. c

Sent you a reply message.

I have nothing medically to add on seizures. But I do know how your heart stopped at that phone call. My son had a severe panic attack(first one ever) when a freshman in college and thought he was having a heart attack. His flatmates called 911 and they took him to the hospital at 2am. We got called at 2:30am and drove 3 hours to the hospital where they were just releasing him.

Sending the most positive thoughts to you, your son and the rest of your family. It's a scary thing.

Mtn, I hate hate hate that you all are going through this. If there is a positive, I'm glad your his mom and on top of things.

I may have missed it, but did he do any unusual exercise, take any vitamins in excess, something he doesn't usually do?

Doctors are also on top of things by testing for drugs.

Now, I want to welcome you to the club of We Worry More About our Adult Children Than We Did When They Were Kids. :)

I can’t imagine how frightening this would be for you as a parent. I have no experience with or knowledge of seizures but wanted to let you know you are in my thoughts.

You didn't mention if they did a LP (lumbar puncture) to rule out infectious cause, or ECG (electrocardiogram) to identify a cardiac cause (like long QT syndrome/torsades).

Mtn——Sending good thoughts that this was just a one-off experience and all is back to normal for your son soon.

Mdln, They did an MRI, EEG and ECG (I just learned that is the same as an EKG). Not an LP. Could he have an infection with no other symptoms?

Idiopathic -- the most frustrating AND most comforting term.

Did you get the COVID test results? Being young and healthy, he could be otherwise asymptomatic. If that is negative, you might still consider an antibody test. I've read about people who are young, healthy and asymptomatic who later have cardiac issues or a stroke -- not sure I've heard of seizures afterwards, but it sounds like it could be in that family and easy enough to rule out with a simple blood test.

Making pancakes sounds great.

Mtn, when i had my seizures the er did not offer a LP. The next day when i was at the er again they wanted to do a LP and I refused. I had a viral infection 3 month previously. i later found out that was the probable cause of my seizures.

Ugh sorry typing on my phone is insane on Houzz.

Mtn, im so sorry for your son and the stress of dealing with this.

my nephew had a one-off siezure while doing a semester abroad in italy ( jr year college). i dont know the details of it but they were very pleased with his healthcare there and it has never happened again. i hope for the same for your son.

How frightening for all of you. I have no personal experience, but hope you get some answers soon. (((Mtn)))

I know nothing about seizures, and so wanted to thank Mdln for the bulleted steps provided above. Very helpful.

Mtn. I'm sorry you and your family are going through this stress. My thoughts are with you find some answers and your son remains safe.

I don’t have any helpful advice, just want to send you a virtual hug. That’s a scary phone call to get.

Thank you, Mtn. I meant it. I know some parents can be lackadaisical (that's my favorite word) which drives me nuts.

Stress can induce seizures. Has your son mentioned if he was under a lot of stress or having anxiety, which is normal for a first week of school?

I'm so sorry you are having to go through this scary time with your son and I hope you have an answer quickly.

So sorry that you and your son are going through this now. Hopefully, you will get the answers you need, soon. And Oakley, I would like to join your club. We have two adult sons, but the younger one, who isn’t so young, is constantly in my thoughts…

Best wishes for this being a one-time event. I know how frightening seizures are. Two people I know have had a seizure with no recurrence and no medical explanation.

I haven't read the other replies, and am assuming a C0 v1d cause has been considered, I don't know if the possibly rare side effects of encephalopathy or seizure from the M0de rna shot have been mentioned. I recall seeing an article about those as unconfirmed side effects.

I'm sorry you and your family are going through this scary time and hope you will get answers soon. Have you considered getting a second 3 day PCR test just to be sure the "new" one is accurate?

Take care Mtn....being a mom is sometimes very hard. Does your son seem worried about this?

Sending good wishes your way, hoping this is a once and done situation. Our bodies can be such a mystery.

Oh really hoping for the best for him and you! How stressful for your family. We had a few kids show their first seizure in first year of university and I believe they all turned out to be idiopathic (as far as I was aware).

Skipped down to say seizures are always scary and especially so when it's someone you love.

And FWIW, my first thought was not drugs, but epilepsy.

I doubt another covid test would be needed if he has no symptoms or exposures, but you could ask the neurologist about an antibody test. Hope he is continuing to feel good. He's not likely to regain any memory of the incident, so it is good that you talked to the professor and made note of the details. Inspired by the chocolate chip pancakes, we made waffles this morning and my son enjoyed them -- so thank your son for us. ;)

BTW -- drugs were not the first thing I thought of either.

I'm so sorry to hear about this. I'm hoping it is just a one off experience even though I'm sure it will be odd to not have any knowledge about why it happened.

My DH and daughter have/had epilepsy. Our daughter actually outgrew it (although it could come back in a different form around college age according to her neurologist) and my DH is fully controlled with medication and haven't had any seizures since diagnosed in college, with the exception when they tried to wean him off his medication.

My experience with my daughter and testing was that it wasn't apparent on an EEG unless they also stimulated her to induce a seizure or she was sleep deprived. I'm hoping they did this at the ER to test your son and if not hopefully you can get it ruled out by your neurologist.

I sincerely hope it was a one off and nothing to worry about for the future, but if not know that there are ways to treat and continue to be seizure free as well and not have any issues or worries about driving.

Oh my - so sorry to hear about this. What a scary experience for you all. I really don't have anything helpful to add but will echo the recommendations by others to ensure your son's neurologist rules out epilepsy.

I will be thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed that this was an isolated incident due to lack of sleep and change of diet.

Lyfia, Thanks for sharing your experience.

Ruby, Epilepsy is, definitionally, recurrent seizures. All of us have a 10% chance of having a seizure at some point in our lives. Generally, the likelihood of a seizure recurring ranges from 16% to 61%.

We did get in to see a neurologist already, yay. (btw, has anyone invented "Open Table" for doctors' appointments? We need one!) His exam was normal, as are all of his test results. Apparently the greatest risk of recurrence was the first 3 days, and the odds of recurrence fall after that. After 3 months his odds of a seizure are the same as the general population.

He is getting a different type of MRI done. It will indicate if there is something about the structure of his brain that makes him susceptible to seizure, and if so will take medications.

Dr. said it is highly likely we will never know the cause and it will never recur.

How is your son feeling now? Hopefully he's feeling back to normal.

That's wonderful news. Sounds like a good doctor and I'm glad he's going a step further with a different MRI. Did he advise driving or going back to school anytime soon? I'm sure you want to sit on him. lol

I totally forgot about a seizure I had about two years ago. It's not the type of seizure one would think of. It's called a Motor Focal Seizure. " A simple focal seizure with motor symptoms will affect muscle activity, causing jerking movements of a foot, the face, an arm or another part of the body."

Motor Seizure

I was sitting in my desk chair at the computer reading email. A friend sent a political email to me and it made me so angry that out of the blue both arms started flapping up and down, and my head was bobbing really fast. I was aware of what was going on but I couldn't stop. It probably lasted about 30 seconds. Home alone, and when it was over, I was fine, but a bit shaken.

I waited to tell my doctor and she didn't think much about it, but from what I've read, I may have had a stroke, a mini-stroke, which my mom used to get which can cause dementia which she died of. Oy.

Thanks BLF, other than being tired, he was pretty much normal immediately.

Yes, Oakley, when you read about seizures, it's amazing all the many forms they can take. Don't get me started on politics; i am sure it has take time off my life.

For 3 months, no driving or doing anything where he could get hurt if he passed out. No swimming, power tools, skydiving.

I'm glad things are checking out ok for him.

Somehow with dealing with covid, it seems like that should be enough...that all those other things that can happen should just go away for awhile...you know, so we only have to deal with one thing at a time, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Sending good thoughts to you and your family.

Good to hear all is calm and w/o incident.. Also good that he has little memory of it happening. Sending good thoughts that you all heal from this together as a family.

Dr. said it is highly likely we will never know the cause and it will never recur.

Yes, this^^^^

So there ya go. As with so many (too many it seems at times) things in life, we are left with not knowing. I imagine your anxiety level has dropped considerably already and will continue dropping through the end of the year - at least related to this subject! I hope he continues feeling well and will someday tell a story about the seizure he didn't know he had.

Such a nice update. Thank you.

• Mtn, I was reading the link I shared above again and just noticed part of the treatment for another seizure is "Avoiding certain triggers, such as flickering lights"

Did the doctor mention that to your son? The reason I ask is back when the Nintendo game "Tetris" first came out, while playing it I got my first and only migraine, a pain I'll never forget. It was a few years later when I read flashing lights can do that, and cause seizures.

Just a head's up for you and your son. :)

Glad to hear you got in to see a neurologist sooner than expected and that your son is OK. Whew!

Oakley,

Apparently for some that can be a trigger, which I understand to be somewhat different from a "cause." I believe that blinking lights and such might be a trigger if your brain were already wired to be susceptible to seizures, which is what the follow-up MRI would show.

Honestly, the brain is so complex that is sometimes seems like almost anything can be a trigger or a cause, and a seizure can showcase the full panoply of human activity.

I'm glad you were able to get in sooner - I know that helped answer questions and put your mind at ease. Hope the rest of this semester goes smoothly.

Glad he has been seen. My husband would have been between 22-25 (based on where we lived at the time, I can't remember exactly what year it happened) and as I mentioned before, he never had another problem. I hope your son is the same way.

I was out of town this weekend. So sorry to hear of this stressful event but glad he is doing better.

Gscience, he was in class with a professor, who I think was literally traumatized mid-syllabus. I feel so bad for the guy! He's super nice and also his advisor as it happens.

Oh Mtn - that is encouraging news. I'm glad you were able to see a neurologist relatively quickly. Now I hope the follow-up MRI is clean too and then your son can focus on his studies without any distractions. It will probably take a little time for your own worries to abate though.

Thank you for the update. Here is to continued good updates and lessened worries.

Dr. said it is highly likely we will never know the cause and it will never recur.

Fingers crossed that it may be so. Hugs to all of you. I am sure that it has certainly been an unnerving experience.

Yes, we had a close family friend that had a couple of random seizures and never really knew why. But no re-occurrences. Kind of frustrating but also good that it was a one off.

Oh my! I am glad that at this point things seem as close to normal as possible.. but oh my, i am sure you had some scary and stressful days. So glad you were able to drop all and go to your son... and that you could get into the neurologist right away. I am sure that helped add to your peace of mind.

Hoping things continue to go well. Hope your son is adjusting to classes from home again. Best to you all!