Question Title: Depakote and Lamictal

My daughter lives in the Cleveland area unfortunately our son in law does not take her
epilepsy serious. She is being treated by a neuro who does not do year EEG's
even though she has had several seizures including a couple at work. He
currently has her on a combination of Depakote and Lamictal. When we are
allowed to speak with her she has difficulty speaking and remembering even
what our last conversation was about. Her condition has become worse and
my husband and I feel it is because of the combination of the drugs and
her medical treatment. Before she was married her seizures had been under
control for 4 1/2 years and her neuro was planning on taking her off
the depakote after the 5 year mark. After her move to Ohio she was forced
to drive and do things that were too much all at once for her to handle.
She has no self esteem left and is
easily persuaded into believing her medical condition isn't that bad. Your
help would be greatly appreciated. We have tried to talk her into going to
the Cleveland Clinic but she won't drive into downtown Cleveland by herself.
Thank you for any suggestions you can give her father and I.

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Depakote and Lamictal are very good drugs for some types of epilepsy, and as
a combination are used very widely, they need to be monitored very carefully
when used in combination as the levels in the blood can get very high causing
toxicity which manifests as drowsiness, poor memory...exactly what you
describe in fact, you daughter need the levels of these druds, especially
the Deopakote checked SOON !!
Secondly if she has had a seizure in the last six months she should not
be driving, I cannot stress this enough , it is dangerous and illegal, she
could kill herself and who knows how many other people if she has a seizure
at the wheel of her car.
If things are this bad somebody needs to help her out and take her to see
an epilepsy specialist, the Cleveland Clinic has one of the lagrest epilepsy
centers in the country and I feel we would have a lot to offer her.
You can make an appointment by calling (216 ) 444 5559, no referral is
necessary and someone in your family needs to help her get some help, rapidly.

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