On to Plan B...okay, how about Plan C?

It has been said that God does not send us more troubles than we have the strength to bear. I sure wish He didn't have such confidence in me. Madeline's EEG showed multi-focal seizures, not focused locally. She is no longer considered a good candidate for surgery. She will have epilepsy her entire life. Will her learning disabilities continue? worsen? abate? Who knows... The doc wants to introduce a new med: felbatol. It has a slightly jaded history but, according to the doc, those bad cases almost always had some other variable contributing (patient with lupus or some other pre-existing disease). Still, we will of course be monitoring her. And, as is usual with this doc, we'll be introducing the new drug slowly, one-quarter dose for a week followed by a half-dose for a week, followed by three-fourths... The upside is that this drug tends to wake up the patient. Maddy has had to content with sleep issues in class for years and years. She often falls asleep in class. Yes, she sometimes stays up too late, lying in bed for hours in the dark. But there is not always a direct connection with one incident and the other. Rather, it seems that often it is the effort to concentrate, to overcome her disability, that simply exhausts her. Then, too, she could be subconsciously using the sleep as a means of escape. The doctor says that his patients report feeling not only more awake but "better" on this drug--more alert. That is certainly something our daughter needs in school. She can't learn if she is not awake and alert. I'm sure that will also help her moods. She has had many emotional problems--sometimes leading to minor suspensions--which are also impeding her learning and her whole school experience.

I was admittedly hoping that this marathon of coping could finally be headed for an end. That surgery would cure the epilepsy and solve the learning disabilities. Such was not to be the case. This is my little girl and I don't know what to do for her.