Overnight EEG at Children's

[Anonymous]

Hi, my son has epilepsy (and a previous abnormal 3 hour EEG). The doctor recommended a follow-up overnight EEG which we will have done at Children's. Can someone who has done this recently for epilepsy let me know what to expect? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We did this a couple of years ago and it was an easy process. We checked in late afternoon, got a room and got settled. DD got hooked up, had food, the activities person came in and gave her some fun things to do. There was a pull out chair for me to sleep on. She went to bed-I tried. The nurse came in every hour or so (I don’t recall specifically) and checked the monitor, got a readout. In the morning they came in, I think around 7 or 8. Took all the leads off, had breakfast and then we were discharged. We got the results a few days later. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My son did that a few times at dc children national. He loves it. He wore comfy clothing and socks. I brought a charger, & a tablet for him to watch unlimited youtube and I brought extra snacks, backup charger and some simple card games to kill time. They have cafeteria selling other food, and I can also order food for myself ( i paid credit card) to eat in the room. No school for him next day. It is quite cold in the room. I brought flip flop, blanket and front zippered jacket for him, and myself. He skipped brushing teeth and and he ate tons of snacks. He described that as vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son did that a few times at dc children national. He loves it. He wore comfy clothing and socks. I brought a charger, & a tablet for him to watch unlimited youtube and I brought extra snacks, backup charger and some simple card games to kill time. They have cafeteria selling other food, and I can also order food for myself ( i paid credit card) to eat in the room. No school for him next day. It is quite cold in the room. I brought flip flop, blanket and front zippered jacket for him, and myself. He skipped brushing teeth and and he ate tons of snacks. He described that as vacation.

You should have been able to change the temperature in your own room.

The neurology suites are quite nice. You also have your own shower/bathroom. They provide some minimal toiletries.

I recommend insisting on having the fewest interruptions possible overnight. They’ll have everyone coming by - trash pickup, towel pickup, etc. If you tell them you need to

Is the goal just to see brain activity? Or are you attempting to catch a seizure? If the latter scenario, you might want to have a longer EEG scheduled if your kid doesn’t have seizures frequently enough that it will certainly happen in 1 day. You can always book a longer stay (3-5 days) and leave earlier. But if you’re trying to actually catch seizure activity, you don’t want to come back if you don’t manage to.

If your kid requires a rescue medication, come prepared with your own. When we had an EEG Childrens couldn’t produce our daughter’s rescue medication after the seizure started (and the alert cord wasn’t actually set up properly so I recommend testing it before you start.) Because it was a medication from home, I had to administer my daughter’s rescue meds in a room of like 12 doctors, nurses, residents looking on. It was quite ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and I strongly recommend you bring really long charger cords. The electrical outlets were awkwardly placed and we needed a long cord to be able to use a device while it’s charging. We bought 5 or 6ft charger cords for hospital stays.

[Anonymous]

I never could sleep much when my son does overnight EEG. I stayed up to read the striking up & down waves on monitor in the dark and googled on my phone trying to analyze how normal or how bad was that which was a stupid move of me doing it, but I just could not help it. Bring eye mask for your kid if your kid is used to sleep in the dark room. The room is not that dark because of all the lights from hallway etc.

My son has epilepsy, and he has abnormal EEG SWI 85-90 percent for many years. He is a rare case because there are no seizures and no medications prescribed, but they just keep monitoring him every year. We have seen a few neurologists, and they are quite amazed that he looks quite great and normal. I was worried that epilepsy diagnosis meant that he had to stop everything that are prone to trigger seizures or dangerous. So far so good, we just keep monitoring, but he can still do sports, sleepaway camp and ride roller coaster(not the super scary ones).

[Anonymous]

It was a pretty miserable experience for us - but we had not planned on it. They admitted us for the overnight from the ER. I tried to sleep in the bed next to my kid (3.5 yrs at the time) and didn’t sleep at all. Many interruptions and I ended up shooing out a nurse who was going to wake him up yet again to check his vitals (which I could see with my own eyes were fine). There was a private bathroom with a shower, which was definitely welcome. This was before door dash so there was basically nothing to eat.

[Anonymous]

My DD had this when she was 4 days old due to seizures. I was a postpartum mess, of course, and they were very kind. I would pack in your car some blankets, pillow, and a sleeping pad for yourself if you have one, as well as all the snacks and an eye mask.

It is a teaching hospital so you may see residents and doctors doing rounds.

[Anonymous]

And yes, advance request that interruptions be minimized. They can do what's medically necessary but there is no need for someone to take your dinner tray away or that kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all these tips. I just had my appointment scheduled. I was surprised they had a check in time offered at 9 a.m.? I opted for an afternoon check-in time...

[Anonymous]

OP here and we recently completed this.
We checked in mid afternoon, were hooked up, and just watched movies all afternoon. We brought snacks and a family member brought dinner. (Patient can order off menu with no charge). It was a very issue process and the staff explicitly said they would leave us alone unless we asked for help. Even still, Sleep wasn’t great for anyone but that’s to be expected! They discharged between 5-7 with required discharge by 7 am. We were told to expect results in a week. Just sharing in case someone else comes to find info on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, my son has epilepsy (and a previous abnormal 3 hour EEG). The doctor recommended a follow-up overnight EEG which we will have done at Children's. Can someone who has done this recently for epilepsy let me know what to expect? Thanks!

We have done this for 5 days but not at Childrens. How old is your son? Mine was 5 at the time. The nurses were very kind. We brought a LOT of activities. The hardest thing was that he was hooked up so had limited mobility. He actually liked the food - lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son did that a few times at dc children national. He loves it. He wore comfy clothing and socks. I brought a charger, & a tablet for him to watch unlimited youtube and I brought extra snacks, backup charger and some simple card games to kill time. They have cafeteria selling other food, and I can also order food for myself ( i paid credit card) to eat in the room. No school for him next day. It is quite cold in the room. I brought flip flop, blanket and front zippered jacket for him, and myself. He skipped brushing teeth and and he ate tons of snacks. He described that as vacation.

You should have been able to change the temperature in your own room.

The neurology suites are quite nice. You also have your own shower/bathroom. They provide some minimal toiletries.

I recommend insisting on having the fewest interruptions possible overnight. They’ll have everyone coming by - trash pickup, towel pickup, etc. If you tell them you need to

Is the goal just to see brain activity? Or are you attempting to catch a seizure? If the latter scenario, you might want to have a longer EEG scheduled if your kid doesn’t have seizures frequently enough that it will certainly happen in 1 day. You can always book a longer stay (3-5 days) and leave earlier. But if you’re trying to actually catch seizure activity, you don’t want to come back if you don’t manage to.

If your kid requires a rescue medication, come prepared with your own. When we had an EEG Childrens couldn’t produce our daughter’s rescue medication after the seizure started (and the alert cord wasn’t actually set up properly so I recommend testing it before you start.) Because it was a medication from home, I had to administer my daughter’s rescue meds in a room of like 12 doctors, nurses, residents looking on. It was quite ridiculous.

We have had similar really bad experiences at Childrens. We stopped going years ago.