Well, actually his name is really Alucious. Just another thing that got lost in translation in Liberian English 🙂 Alucious is the little boy we had been treating for Febrile Seizures since July. In keeping his parents supplied with antipyretics (Tylenol and Motrin) we thought we had his seizures under control. Unfortunately, we discovered he was having more seizures than we originally thought.
On two different occasions Alucious had seizures in the clinic, when he was without fever and didn’t appear to be sick. After further probing we found out he was having multiple seizures in a week. Epilepsy was a definite possibility.
We reached out to our friends in Monrovia (thank you Air Med) who put us in touch with some doctors at JFK Hospital. A few weeks later Steve carried Alucious to JFK where he met with the Chief Pediatrician. Just imagine Steve and a 40-plus-pound 2 year old waiting for hours to see a physician. Oh, and Alucious thinks the world is his urinal 🙂 The Doc assessed Alucious and sent for some blood tests. There is no EEG in the country, so the diagnosis of Epilepsy is based strictly on history and the affect of anti-seizure medications. Alucious was started on Carbamazapine and Vitamin B Complex and will follow up at JFK in 3 months.
Until then we will continue to monitor his progress, and provide and adjust his meds, as needed, at the clinic. Since starting the Carbamazapine, we are glad to report that Alucious has been SEIZURE FREE.
Po River Medical Clinic 