#Autism: Seizures or Selective Hearing?

It appears that Gavin’s seizures may be getting worse. Perhaps worse is the wrong word. It’s more like, Gavin’s seizures seem to be more frequent. We’re noticing that Gavin is only hearing parts of conversations we have with him.
For example, today Lizze said to him, Gavin bring me the game and I’ll put it away. She even repeated herself a second time. Gavin was walking away with the game and out it away.

Initially, we assumed he wasn’t listening…again.

However, after talking with him about it and subsequently contacting the neurologist, it’s seems likely that he had another seizure.

Gavin was insisted that Lizze had only said, put it away. He didn’t freak out like he had been caught in a lie either. Lizze and I believe him when he said he didn’t hear her say, bring me the game and I’ll put it away.

Typically, when Gavin is caught in a lie, he immediately melts down. That’s his tell, if you will.

This morning, he was calm and very confused. This has been happening with increasing frequency anymore. At this point we are waiting here back from the neurologist. The other issue that his neurologist is concerned about is the tremors. We know that they can be a side effect of depakote. The problem is that Gavin is not new to depakote. In fact, Gavin was on depakote for a very long time, until he maxed out on the dosage. Never once did he have any side effects.

It’s possible these could be part of the movement disorder he developed a couple of years ago. It may simply be resurfacing once again.

This makes things even more murky because there is just so much going on with Gavin that it’s pretty much impossible to know, with any degree of certainty, what is going on with him. The last thing in the world I wanted to do is hold him accountable for not listening, when in reality he was having a seizure.

With the absent type seizures, it’s really difficult to tell what is happening because often, there are no outward signs. He will just kinda shut off.

**Thanks for reading**

-Lost and Tired

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