History of David's epilepsy

David was born in January 1989 in California. He was the most wonderful baby ever! He was an early talker and very bright and loving.

In early 2000 he complained of feeling funny.

In May 2000 he had a recognizable seizure.

June 2000- diagnosis of complex partial epilepsy. Began medicine. (Tegretol)

Late 2000- seizures at a rate of several a week; he would become unconscious and fall down.

January 2001- switched medicines to Topamax. (Dope-a-max!) Bad side effects: very slow speech, very poor memory, cognitive disaster.

June 2001- Started seeing Dr. Huf, neurologist. Heard the word 'surgery' for the first time w/ regard to David's treatment. Yikes.

August 2001- Guest of Huntington Hospital's Epilepsy and Brain Mapping unit for video EEG. Electrodes epoxied on the noggin then tried to have seizures. The point: to identify a spot in the brain where seizures originate. If so then maybe it can be removed and voila! no more epilepsy. Results: not clear. More testing recommended.

August 2001- Dr. Huf (bless him) took David off Topamax and started Lamictal.

Fall 2001- Lamictal somewhat better re side effects, less seizure control. David now having 1-2 seizures per week.

February 2003- David began taking Keppra, another anticonvulsant. It cleared up a lot of little seizure feelings he had, many times a day. And for seven wonderful weeks no seizures. Then they started again, at a rate of one every week or so.

June 2004- began seeing Dr. Imbus (bless him) who added a third drug, Depakote, to David's medications. Seizures reduced a lot, down to several situations such as fever and exertion. So if he could only not work up a sweat or catch a cold or fever ever, we'd be done! hmmm.

Summer 2004- Another video EEG vacation, this time at UCLA. Again inconclusive.

August 2006- Surgery. But twelve inches south of the brain. David got a Vagus Nerve Stimulator unit which is like a pacemaker with a lead attached in the neck to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve runs up to the brain and down to the stomach. It somehow tells the brain not to have seizures and tells the stomach it is full. It also tells the brain it is happy so the gadget is approved for treating depression. A panacea!

Fall 2006 to Spring 2007- the VNS allows David to exercise without any more seizures! Yeah! But it causes insomnia, which is a little-reported side effect but does show up in the manufacturer's list of patient complaints. Poor sleep caused more seizures. But unaware of what was going on we would see more seizures, then have the doctor turn up the doses the VNS was delivering. Finally in May David was totally exhausted. We figured out what was going on and got David on sleeping medicine. Ahhh- problem solved and David felt great. Still having unpredictable seizures triggered by slight fevers. Medicine side effects are also a major problem.

Spring 2007- started seeing Dr. Sutherling.

July 2007- ten days in Huntington Hospital for a third time around with video-EEG. Medicine doses drastically reduced to induce seizures for the EEG. Unfortunately seizures spread too fast to show where they come from. But doctors felt optimistic that David does have a "spot" that might be removable.

Fall 2007 to Winter 2008- testing to move toward surgery.