Epilepsy

[Abrivado]

Hello everybody,

My 4-yr-old daughter is on Depakine, the French brand of Sodium Valproate. UK friends have said that she should have had her blood tested by now for SV levels, because it's a drug that can accumulate and cause learning difficulties (and she already has enough of them!).

St Eloi hospital here haven't done this, does anyone have any experience of this subject?

And is up-the-bum Valium the usual treatment after a fit? Poor Rosie reacted really badly to that, it acted as an I'm-off-into-hyperspace-bouncing-off-the-ceiling wonderdrug on her, and could not have been further from a tranquillizer. I don't want them to do that to her again - she didn't sleep for about 36 hours!!

Merci for any information,
Ab.


"I don't see what your problem is, Ab. In the part of France where I live, there's so much milk and honey we wear waders".

[Lesley]

Our son, who is now almost 10, was born while we were living in France. I was convinced that there was something seriously wrong with him from the beginning but could get neither doctors nor friends to see it. Oliver had several fits from an early age which were put down to febrile convulsions. When Oliver was around 10 months old we moved to the UK (mainly for reasons not connected with our son). Although then given a broad diagnosis of cerebral palsy the fits were never treated in any preventative form. It was not until a few years later when we were on holiday and Oliver had a very bad fit on route for the ferry that we encountered the excellent emergency services at Alenon. The doctor who treated Oliver at hospital there was incredulous that up to then Oliver was not on any routine medication and wrote a letter for us to give to our UK consultant explaining that he must be on Sodium Valproate. Oliver has been on it for years now, never entirely fit free, and we also have to occasionally use the Diazepam. Oliver has had many blood tests along the way to check his levels, usually whenever the fits have increased in frequency, and as he grows thereby effectively reducing the dose. Last year the fits increased in both frequency and severity to a level that even increasing the dose did not resolve and so we have been giving Oliver an additional medicine along with the SV, Lamictal, which if I understand it correctly, makes the SV more efficient. The new medicine was introduced very slowly, gradually increasing it over a period of about 3 months. I hope I am not tempting fate by saying that Oliver has not had a fit now since the beginning of the year. We did think it had some adverse effect on behaviour initially but this seems to be back to "normal" now! As to effects on learning difficulties, it is very hard for me to say. Oliver has always had severe learning difficulties but I don't think the medicine has contributed much if at all to this. Hope this rather long reply is of help to you and good luck!