Final Week Of Depakote

This is Raquel's last week of being on Depakote. Actually, Wednesday night will be her last partial dose so come Thursday, she will be solely on Keppra. I am hoping and praying that she will do much better on this medication.

I've already noticed some changes since the weaning process began. She's definitely not as groggy and is a bit more stable on her feet. She still has these "episodes", but they aren't as dramatic as before, although I am still troubled by her having them at all. She doesn't seem nearly as anxious, but definitely has her moments. Once we began the weaning process, she started waking up at 3am (again) and her sleeping patterns got off a bit. But now we have a soft light in her room at night - she previously liked it very dark - and the light seems to help. Old behavior problems also returned, which the neurologist warned me about. Depakote was supposed to be helping tame the bad behaviors, and once we lessened the dose, the hitting, scratching, biting, head butting returned. Combining that with the sleep issues, the last week or so hasn't been a bed of roses. But now, for the most part, she is back to her regular sleeping routine and her behaviors are managable - unless she's tired, hungry, or just in a bad mood. :-)

I'm also noticing more functional play. And she wants to participate in playing instead of just watching others do so. When our sitter brings her year and a half daughter over to our house, Raquel clearly models what she is doing. You would assume she would try to copy Gabby because of all the time they spend together, but I think it helps to have someone smaller and acting more at her level. Gabby tends to be all over the place doing a million things at once, and I think that often overwhelms Raquel. When Gabby will intentionally sit down and play with her one-on-one, she seems to do much better in that regard and sucks up all the attention Gabby is giving her. You can really see Raquel sparkle when Gabby gives her her undivided attention.

Raquel is also listening more and clearly understands what we tell her. She is jabbering more and trying to initiate conversations. And she's trying to vocalize answers to my questions. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

As far as the Prednisone goes, I'm not starting that immediately after the Depakote is over with. I want to wait a couple weeks to see how she's handling the Keppra so I can determine whether or not she is having adverse side effects from that before adding another medication. Her neurologist is fine with that, and we have our next follow up appointment with him on October 13th.

The journey continues...