Update on Izzy and her seizures

Many have asked, and so I will answer.

We recently started Izzy on her 3rd medication. We are slowly (and I mean very slowly!) weaning her off of the d
Depakote and moving to Lamictal. This process will occur over the course of the next 20 weeks.

Here is a quick recap.

Our first medication was Zarontin, and while it seemed to work for about 2 weeks, it then stopped. Izzy continued to have seizures and those seizures began to increase in duration. Not only that, but she began wetting her pants.

We moved onto Depakote, and at one point while decreasing the Zarontin, and increasing the Depakote, we were having only 2-3 seizures a day. The goal is: seizure free and side affect free.

Once fully on the Depakote Izzy began to not only have an increase in seizures, but also to have wicked mood swings. I can't really even put into words what a different child she was at times. Everything seemed to be taken to the "n'th" degree. If she was bad, she was oh so bad! If Izzy started to cry, good lord did the girl melt down! She also became violent. It wasn't awful, but if she got mad at someone (especially Drew) she didn't hesitate to throw a punch or kick. She became more sassy, more disrespectful, and just plain mean. I hate to even put this in writing, but I remember saying to Pete one night, "I don't even like her!" It was heartbreaking. I can only compare it to what I think it would be like to deal with some sort of child with special needs and I was just thrown into it. Many an emotional outburst I have found myself kneeling down, taking both her hands in mind and explaining things like she is 2! Oh, and please don't think that I haven't gone to the other extreme of telling her to go to her room and then screaming at her from downstairs for 30 min! Trial and error baby!

BUT, it as if the good lord knew I needed to see my "sweet Izzy girl" and just a couple days after my declaration, we had an awesome day together! She was perfect as pie! It was like my Izzy was back. We read, played cards, baked, ...she unloaded the dishwasher, helped with dinner prep, was kind to her brother. Oh how I needed that!

So...currently we are switching the the new med. The good news is that with the new medication we won't need random blood draws to make sure her liver is okay (did I mention that party?) and hopefully, we will stabilize her mood.

I like to think that through this experience I have gained greater empathy for others. I don't know if I ever really judged other parents...okay, I'm sure i did...but now I look at people struggling with their kids a little bit different. I don't know what kind of special circumstances might be behind either the mood of the child or that of the parent.

Fingers crossed, and God willing, this next med works. If not, we go for med number 4. ...there is a reason there are 26 medications out there currently used to treat this type of epilepsy. We just need to find the right med cocktail for Iz.