Out With The Old, In With the New

We finally saw the new peds neurologist for our second opinion and I have to say I'm quite impressed. He want to totally stop the Keppra and valpoic acid. He never uses valproic acid on kids less than 2 due to possible liver damage and he doesn't feel that Keppra is effective for IS (which I knew!) and doesn't see the point in using it. He's also upping the dose of his Topamax. Turns out the dose we're on is way too low, like and eighth of what Yusef should be taking to be therapeutic.

We're also going to be doing an MRI soon just to make sure we're not missing something. It's always been assumed that the IS is due to DS since it's a huge risk factor, but the imaging is just to make sure we're not missing some type of structural abnormality of the brain.

He also wants me to call him weekly with updates. I love this! A doctor who wants to be bothered!

He just seems so much more up to date and knowledgeable. So it looks like we'll be turning our care over to him from this moment on. I'm so hopeful and I'm sure we're making the right decision.

Tonight Yusef also attended his first circus! Our EI organization gave us free tickets. Somaya was terrified the first good hour of the show--literally screaming "wanna go bye bye" right up until the intermission. Our ever skeptical girl soon warmed and was dancing and clapping by the end. The show was just so so, but we were all mutually impressed by the finale consisting of flaming motorcycles whirring around in a little circular cage type thingy. Fire and torque always rock I guess, no matter who you are.

You can tell Yusef was real impressed. I swear that kid can sleep through anything!