The week after Sound of Music ended, Rachel had another EEG, and the next day she met her new neurologist, Dr. Brenda Porter. The meeting with Dr. Porter was very eye-opening. She asked if Rachel had been having any side effects from the now-very-high dose of Keppra. When we replied no, she said “Really, not even the Keppra Nasties?” Our jaws dropped. You mean that all that eye-rolling, back-talking, and general negative outlook on life was NOT teenage hormones gone wild?! It was the medication?! Yay! Our sweet daughter is still in there!

Since the Keppra was not even stopping the seizures any more, we soon started weaning her off of it. The effect was amazing. All the goofy characters, with all the goofy voices, came back. The laughter came back. For Rachel, this medicine was waaay worse than the disease.