This picture popped up on my Facebook page from a year ago. The caption read “Favorite spot with my favorite human. Lots of doctors and specialist appointments recently, celebrating moving in the right direction.” This was before Reagan started a medication that we would quickly learn had side effects that included slower processing speed, extreme fatigue and a constant state of being in a fog. Yet, I didn’t know that on the day this picture was taken and on that day I was hopeful.
Hopeful that we had found the medication that was going to give Reagan both seizure control and the freedom to be a kid. Though this medication did give her some seizure control, it did not give her any freedom, that was taken from her. You see this medication caused such extreme fatigue, she would fall asleep for hours after taking her morning dose, causing her to miss school and events. With some tweaking of the dose, the fatigue faded, and again we were hopeful. Then we started to see the other side effects, the mental fog and lose of knowledge that once was. My little girl would be standing right in front of me, but it was almost as if she was hiding in plain sight.
These periods of extreme fatigue and mental fog have come and gone and come back again over the past year. This medication has been a blessing and curse, a blessing that Reagan has had seizure control and curse because it took her with it. Thus, it’s time to start a new treatment plan and with this one I am hopeful. Hopeful for seizure control and hopeful that my little girl comes out of hiding.
Rea of Hope 