Yesterday, we had an appointment for Laycie at Pediatric Neurology in MUSC – Charleston, SC. It was a routine checkup to see how she’s been doing and discuss her medication. Just another visit for us.
Of course, everything went well. I have concerns about her medication that we discussed with our neurologist. For some reason, Laycie has side-effects for every medication she takes. Depakote is no exception.
Her neurologist suggested I give Laycie a multivitamin with B6 to see if that helps to improve our side-effects. B6 is not a new vitamin but the helpful effects on patients with Epilepsy has just been noticed by many neurologists. It’s being used in the hopes to help balance out negative effects many seizure medications cause.
Medicine has come a long way in the time since I was born 33 years ago, growing up with Epilepsy and even in the past 9, almost 10 years that I’ve been raising children with Epilepsy. Every year more and more is becoming known about this disorder but there is still relatively little that anyone, doctors included, can understand.
What we as parents and patients of Epilepsy must remember is that the brain is such a complex unit. Add to that the complexity of Epilepsy itself and well you find a lot of confusion. The brain is like a complex computer with many different areas that control every single inch of our bodies, inside and out. This computer is only completely understood by God himself and no other being can read or understand it.
What we can do to help learn more is to detail everything we can about how Epilepsy affects each of us, how it affects our children and our families. We can share that information with other parents and patients, along with our neurologists. We can ask to join in on Epilepsy panels and volunteer for testing.
All of these things together work towards the medical teams learning more and more about how our brains work and how Epilepsy affects each of us. Nothing is too small and every one of us can help. Ask and find out how you can do your part today.