A little background:

Our 11 y/o son had his first grand mal in Dec. 08. It lasted about 3 minutes. He was taken to the ER and we had an EEG and MRI a few days later. MRI came back clear but the EEG was abnormal. He didn't have another seizure until May 20. We were at Arkansas Children's Hospital on May 27 when he had another seizure in the hallway on the way to the Neuro Clinic. He was admitted for over night observation and upon discharge, he was put on 500mg of Keppra 2x daily. He continued to have at least one 'big' seziure every week for about 3 months. During this time, his Keppra dosage was gradually increased to 1250mg 2x daily (the max for his weight) and Topamax was also added. His 'big' seizures also increased in length and intensity. In August we noticed he was having several staring 'spells' per hour and we finally got a VEEG appt. Within about 30 minutes of being hooked up, he had about 10 absance seizures. Our doc figured he was having about 200 +/- a day. They loaded him up on Depakote that night and the amount of seizures dramatically decreased. Now he is on 750mg Depakote in the AM, 500mg Depakote in the PM, plus 150 Topamax 2x daily. He was weened off the Keppra. His official diagnosis is 'absance seizures with secondary generalization.' He hasn't had any 'big' seizures since Sept. 16th and only has about 5-10 absance seizures a day.

This is my dilemma: I am homeschooling him and I've noticed in the past few weeks that he has seriously regressed academically and socially. Our Neuro told me that academic and social regression was common in children with multiple seizures. He also said that the further away we get from the 'big' seizures, this should improve, but it actually seems to be getting worse. He's also very aggressive and has no reasoning skills. Also, Topamax also has side effects of short term memory loss and regression. There are days when he cannot add or subtract simple numbers. We can do a math problem and on the very next one, he looks at it like he's never seen it before. He is technically in the 6th grade but many days it seems as though we are back in the 2nd or 3rd. He also has a pretty bad case of ADHD, but is unable to take his Focalin. WHen the Topamax and Focalin is taken together, he is very loopy and out of it. He says it makes him feel 'oozy.' This is his description of how he feels before a 'big' seizure. So, on top of everything else, we have the hyperactivity to deal with... Has anyone else had these types of problems with these type of seizures and meds? Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.