Why is she behaving like this? Could it be????

Meghan 7

Over the last few weeks Meghan has had a lot of behavior at school.  I have gotten a lot of negative feedback on the way Meghan is behaving.  Its very hard for us mom,dad's to hear what she is doing and what she is NOT doing-Learning!  My detective hat goes into vigilance mode.  I am looking at her supplements, medication and if I changed anything that could be causing the problem.  And then the seizures start!  As I put each seizure on her seizure form I push myself to figure out what is going on.  Did I forget a seizure dose, did the new supplement now causing more problems, is she getting her period?  What I tend to forget is that when she gets sick I usually don't see any symptoms for at least 2 weeks.  For this sickness it was 3 weeks.
Why? I'm not a neurologist or a doctor of any means but what I have seen over a decade -this is my theory.  Everything changes!  Her neurology, her medication levels, her ability to follow simple directions and her frustration level goes up exponentially!
I love my teacher and team but they clearly do not understand how this can affect her school performance!  Even if they do understand what do we do? Here are some of my ideas:
1. Lessen talking so she doesn't go overloaded
2. Step back expectations and give her more rest periods
3. Allow more downtime
4. Go home early to rest
5. Try to figure out what is going on with your child.
6.  Most important educate her school and home staff to understand and have ideas to support her during this time.
7. Be patient- don't change anything!  If you do you will not know what is doing what.

I used to get so impatient that I would increase medications which is the worse thing you can do.  Most of the time she would get worse especially when we increase medications.
Many of you don't have a decade behind you of experiences of when your child gets sick but this is a time that I look back and smile.  When Meghan was much younger she would get sick all the time.  She was dealing with weak immune system, more seizures, and more neurological change.  Now a days, she does not get sick very often and many times we will forget that this could be the problem. That in itself is a good thing. What is more amazing is that when she does get sick she sleeps!  The days of being up for hours and hours, seizures, not eating,ER visits, dehydration, and drinking are gone.  When she gets sick I can reflect back and see how far we  have come! Now when she gets sick she sleeps, she watches movies and she allows her body to heal!  So for all of you, that you are in the younger years, I hope that this will comfort you to know it will get better with age.
So as you are walking a chronic illness journey consider when behavior changes, that your child could be getting sick.  There are things you can do to help them deal with the changes that is going on with their body during that time.  If there are things you do that help I would love to hear from you!
I would love to hear from you if you do anything that really helps your child when they get sick!