Epilepsy

A little over a month ago (April 29 to be exact) I called the doctor's office to voice my concerns about some peculiar behavior Joseph had been exhibiting for about a month. After speaking with Nurse Cynthia, and every time I say that it reminds me of The Rugrats and the bratty little girl's doll Cynthia the doll that looks like Barbie with a really, really bad hangover, I persuaded her to contact one of the NP's in the office. Martha suggested we contact Dr. Escobar our developmental specialist in Indy.

I called Dr. Escobar's office and they wanted and EEG done but I did not want to go to Indy for it. Soooo, I had to call our pediatricain's office back ask them to schedule it. At nearly 4:oo in the afternoon, I called Dr. Jones' office and asked for the EEG. At 6:30 that evening, I got the call our EEG would be April 30 at 10:45 in the morning.

The EEG was performed and it was during the testing I realized I was right. Did I want to be? Absolutely not; this was the ONE time in my life I WANTED to be wrong. I wanted so desperately to be wrong. Now, flashforward one more day to 5:20 in the evening. I was gone taking Jared to this Mamaw Federspill's house and had stopped off at Rural King to exchange some bibs Grandma Taylor bought for Joseph. Shawn got the call, Dr. O'Bannion (who is filling in for Dr. Jones since his kidney transplant) said our EEG did show some abnormalities and he "highly recommended" we see a pediatric neurologists and would set up the appointment. One more thing, he said, "Be sure to tell Christie she did a fantastic job catching this when she did."

Comforting? No. Reassuring? No. Reality? Absolutely.

Well, I got this news too late to call Dr. Escobar's office on Friday so I had to wait til Monday to make the appointment. I called first thing Monday morning and we were to be in Indy on May 5 at 4:45 p.m. The office was sliding us in to get the EEG read ASAP. The appointment went great, Dr. Escobar is such a genuine man. He told me, "This is not bad, this is not bad. But...Joseph needs to be on medication. He needed to be on medication yesterday. If you don't mind, I will call Dr. Pappas and get him on medicine right away."

I agreed, I would wait. He left the room and I looked down at my little guy and my heart broke a little more. I was having my own little "oh, poor me" party. Blech! We got our script and left to come home. I called my hubby and apologized. I called my dad and cried. I called my sister and bawled. I called my best friend and tried to hold it together.

The next day we started the meds and for the first couple, three weeks they kicked his butt! He would just konk out and would get very grouchy. Thankfully, my fears of "losing him" in the medication (Trileptal) never came true. His personality still shines but he does konk out early into the afternoon and sleeps for a LONG time.

I have not noticed any of the old peculiarities and I believe the meds are working. This in and of itself is amazing. Many times, medicating a child for seizure activity is trial and error finding the right med and dosage. We hit the nail on the head the first strike.

He is plugging right along, still making developmental strides. And now, epilepsy, is not so scary. I don't like it, and I don't have too. Epilepsy took my maternal grandmother when she seized and then passed away at the age of just 27 years. Epilepsy does mean a greater chance of Alzheimer's for my son and that freaks me out, but for today I shall watch my kids with wide wonder and not think about what might be.