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Discouraged re 20 yeal old daughter

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 12:03

My daughter was diagnosed with Epilepsy when she was 10 years.  She did fairly well with only occassional seizures for a long time.  When she was 14 she had a bad two months, but was placed on Zarontin with her Lamictal and did well for years.  She would occassionally have break through seizures, but those seemed to only happen if she missed a dose of medication.  She might have a breakthrough seizure for no reason once in a blue moon.  She got her driver's license and graduated from high school.  Then in August of 2013 things go worse.  She was having complex partial seizrues.  This manifested itself as her not knowing where she was or what was happening for several minutes.  She stopped driving.  She started community college two days a week.  Then, in October of 2013 she had a grand mal seizure and stopped breathing. Luckily I know CPR and was able to open her airway and get her breathing again.  Since that time she has continued to have the grand mal seizures every 2-6 weeks.  She has been through A LOT of testing and medication adjustments.  We ended up seeing an Epileptologist in January of 2014.  She took her off of the Zarontin as it interferes with Lamictal and reduce the efficacy of Lamictal.  That didn't help.  My daughter had a 4 day VEEG in April.  Those spells where she doesn't know where she is are definitely seizures.  She was referred for a VNS.  The VNS surgery was done in June.  She has seen her Epileptologist every 3-4 weeks since then.  Her VNS is nearly at the highest dose.  Last month she had two seizrues that were only 5 days apart.  More tests.  Two weeks ago she had two seizures only 4 days apart.  She had an EEG last week.  This most recent EEG showed worsening of her Epilepsy when compared to the VEEG from April.  Now the doctor wants to start Onfi on Monday even though my daughter does not have LGS. 

My daughter is 20.  She cannot drive.  The stress of school has caused several seizures, so she will not be returing to school next semester.  She had a very low key job at a friend's small business.  However, due to financial constraints, the friend had to let all of her employees go.  My daughter is depressed, discouraged, and scared that the next seizure could end her life. We have looked into the CBD oil, however, that would worsen her type of seizures.  A friend tried it and went into status epilepticus.  The friend has the same type of Epilepsy as my daughter.

I need support, help, and any words of advice that you might have!  Thank you in advance.

Julie

 

Comments

She has generalized seizures,

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2014-12-27 - 23:00
She has generalized seizures, so resection is not an option. We've asked about the diets, but her doctor wasn't hopeful about them, so my daughter wants to eat what she wants since it most likely wouldn't help.

I think that there are

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2014-12-27 - 23:33
I think that there are multiple foci. This has never been an option that her doctors have believed was for her.

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