Weaning Off The Depakote

After speaking with Raquel's neurologist last night, he recommended that we start to slowly wean her off of the Depakote. We will give her 1/2 of her nightly dose for two weeks, then eliminate her morning dose for two weeks, and then remove her final nighttime dose altogether.

Even though I thought my lists of questions and concerns were pretty substantial, he didn't seem to feel anything was particularly alarming, and simply recommended weaning her off of the medication so we monitor changes in behavior. He didn't feel changing to a generic form of the drug would make that big of a difference because she isn't having true seizures. He said the doses weren't too close together like I thought they might be, but did say that very well could be why her sleep patterns have changed. My other concerns could certainly be side effects from the medication, but we won't know for sure until the meds are removed from her system.

Although I thought Raquel showed progress at the start of taking it almost a year ago, I've honestly felt recently that the vast majority of changes we were noticing were contributed to her maturing in age. And from day one I have been extremely concerned about side effects of the Depakote - both short and long term - especially considering the fact that she can't tell me what she is physically or mentally experiencing. And giving her the medicine has become very difficult. She looks intensely at what I'm feeding her to see if she can spot the white granules in her food, and if she does see them, she pierces her lips tightly together and shakes her head no. I guess that is her way of telling me she doesn't like how she feels once she takes it.

I kind of feel like we have come full circle with this and now are back to square one - with the exception of having more answers. I'm grateful tests are done, as difficult as they were, and am grateful that so many conditions have been ruled out based on her normal MRI and blood screens. All we know right now is that she has an abnormal EEG for some reason, which resembles a rare neurological disorder that can possibly be outgrown.

The weaning process began last night, so now we have to take things one day at a time. I'm planning on having her back in school on Monday.