Gabby Update – Medicine Change

During our five day hospital stay the doctor on call who released us to go home had suggested maybe her seizure medicine was causing the confusion.  However since she was still having problems with bladder control he wrote a prescription to up her seizure dose by 50mg daily.  When he told me ‘there is a chance it will make things better and a chance it will cause the confusion to be worse’ I decided to wait until we were home from our trip before raising the dose.  I wasn’t ready to deal with her confusion being worse while on vacation.  There are times she gets lost as it is I couldn’t imagine dealing with the ‘unknown‘ while in the Bahamas.

After spending a full week thinking long and hard about what was best for Gab and feeling as if I wasn’t given any true answers I decided to talk it out with her therapist.  We looked at a time line and came to the conclusion that the confusion did start around six months ago which was the exact same time that the doctor had increased her seizure medicine.  The increase in seizure medicine did not stop the bladder control issue and her EEG showed the same exact results when she was on 100mg as when she was on 200mg so I decided to not raise to the additional 50mg daily.  I called and pointed this out to her Neurologist and got the okay to not only NOT increase but to go ahead and decrease back down to 100mg like it was over six months ago.  We made this change on Thursday of last week.

I will not say that she is doing better.  She has had bladder control loss since then, however that isn’t new, but I have hope.  I haven’t noticed any confusion yet but sometimes it doesn’t happen daily.  I plan to give it at least another week or two before deciding if I believe it’s helping.

I took a stand today on Gab’s behalf about future procedures.  Her Botox injections were done last November which means they have completely worn off.  Her Occupational Therapist agrees that on her hand it is best to wait several months before even deciding if we should Botox again and since Gab isn’t complaining about her leg I have decided I am not exploring that outlet again right now.  She has been through so much lately that I feel it’s time for a break.  Her mood is showing that she can’t handle much more.  After the year she has had I believe it’s my job to finally step forward and say that’s enough, especially since I can tell a difference in her.  I just want us to focus on getting her medications settled and get her feeling back to normal.