Epilepsy essentially confirmed... next steps

Hi everyone. Thanks to all of you who responded and sent good thoughts to my previous posts. Well, it probably goes without saying that I am at the low point in my life; we had an appointment this morning at Children's Hospital of Philadlelphia and the Nurse Practitioner, along with the Attending Physician, basically confirmed epilepsy. For those of you who haven't read my previous post, a little less than a year ago, our daughter began exibiting a curious eye motion which I now believe (after a lot of searching) is something called "eyelid myoclonia without absences". Here are a few links if anyone is interested: http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/ctf/eyelid_myoclonia_w_wo_abs.html http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/1/40 Apparently, if this is what it is, the epilepsy may be treated but the twitch may remain. However, the attending (who indicated he's seen this before) said the medication has stopped the physical manifestations of the seizures. I don't know what to think, but I'd like to think he's correct! Anyway, as I've said before, I realize a lot of people are in much more "serious" situations and I suppose we should feel lucky; so far, it hasn't impacted her life or growth and she is smart and fun. My heart goes out to all of you who have somehow managed to progress through such emotional turmoil. We're going back tomorrow for a 4-hour EEG in which she basically watches TV and we hit a button when she "does the eye thing" and we were told this is to basically confirm that the seizures on the EEG are indeed causing the eye movements. We have also asked for a referral from our primary doc for an MRI, though the two gentlemen we met with reassured us that there's almost no concern on their part anything serious will show up. Right now my greatest concern is the side effects of drugs. I guess there's always that chance. I think they said the choice would most likely be Depakote, which side effect (mainly) would be liver damage. That's kind of scary, but apparently if detected is reversible by going off that med. On the upside, we have a great family and some good friends who offer encouraging words, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is, for lack of a more appropriate way of describing it, reasonably nice if we have to go at all. So, there you have it. Your comments of encouragement and support are warmly appreciated. Andrew