We can’t exactly complain about it. In fact, we asked for it. Rachel needed yet another MRI, and we had three doctors to meet.  It was another sign of how accommodating Packard is, that they were able work all of this in to one day. But it did make for a very long day.

The biggest thing to come out of the day was that we conveyed our decision to move forward as soon as possible with surgery. Their protocol is that two medications should be shown to have failed. The Keppra was teenage-hormones-times-ten, and still didn’t stop the seizures. The Tripleptal made her sick at high doses, and also didn’t stop them. So it was time to move on.

The doctors wanted two more tests: a 3-day video EEG (to verify that the seizures really do start in the right temporal lobe), and a Functional MRI (to verify that her language memories really are formed on the left side, like most people).

On only the third day of school, Rachel had the scariest seizure of the year. Mainly it scared her friend Sophie, but it scared the rest of us too.

She had gotten permission to go to the rest room from her teacher, and when she hadn’t returned after a few minutes, the teacher sent her friend to check on her. When Sophie pushed the door open, it banged against Rachel, who was lying on the floor. Poor Sophie was afraid she was dead.

It seems that Rachel had a seizure in the bathroom, and uncharacteristically lost her muscle control and fell down. On the way down she must have hit her head and passed out, because she had a nasty bump. It was a scary reminder of all the things Rachel couldn’t do by herself anymore, like walk across streets. And apparently go to the school bathroom.

As Rachel started 8th grade, we felt a lot of support from her school. They met with us to discuss how to best help our family through the difficult year ahead. Her teachers were very compassionate, and ready to accommodate her upcoming absences as best they could. Rachel’s favorite part: no penalties for late homework!

There were certainly a lot of absences. Her new medication, Trileptal, did not seem to control the seizures at first. When Dr. Porter upped the dosage to a high level, Rachel immediately got so sick that she missed many days of school, on separate occasions. She then backed off the dosage to a place where Rachel didn’t get sick, although she continued to have about a seizure a day.

Rachel, for her part, has worked very hard to make up for the many missed days of school. Many times her teachers have been very surprised when she turned her work in much earlier than expected. We are very grateful that school is not adding stress to our lives.