Question
Parents of children with epilepsy should be cautious with medication. Their child has a recurrence every two months if they don’t take the medicine. They didn’t meet an expert until they were around six years old. They started using Keppra. They’ve been on the medication for a year without any seizures. They’ve been caught off guard several times. The doctor suggested we take more medicine. Now, the seizures are very frequent, almost every week. In the last two or three instances, after adding a dose of traditional Chinese medicine by a doctor at a hospital, the frequency of seizures increased significantly. After an intense seizure occurred again, the child often has foam in the mouth, limbs twitch, and sometimes urinary incontinence. This medication has now started to fail. They often experience dizziness and excessive excitement again. An attack happens suddenly where the head turns to the right and speech becomes incoherent. She lies in bed for a while. She is ten years old now. Can she see herself that way? I’m afraid I would go crazy.
Answer
Antiepileptic medications require a gradual increase and if a change is considered, it also needs to be done gradually. Traditional Chinese medicine is not effective in treating epilepsy. Epilepsy itself does not have other complications and is not foolish. I suggest you go to the hospital for a brain MRI and switch to a new antiepileptic medication according to the actual situation. Patients should maintain a positive attitude, face the disease with a positive mindset, as this is the only way to improve patients’ immunity and belief in fighting against the disease, believing that this will definitely drive away the illness.