Seizures and Dilantin

Posted By Lisa Babcock on July 26, 1998 at 11:50:05:







My mom is 77 years old and in December and February she had fallen, no one was around when she fell but she was found on the floor, very disoriented. In March the CT scan found that she needed a shunt put in her brain to drain the excess fluid out. They said at that time that she had probably always had this from childhood. So they put in a medium flow then found that it was draining too fast and put in a slow one in April. Now July 22 she had what we thought to be a stroke and a few hours later she had  a seizure. She went to the hospital and they did another CT scan and it showed no difeerences from the last one she had. So no stroke but they want to put her on Dilantin to control the seizures. We were told that the reason for the seizures is because of the shunt and protons bouncing off it. Could this be true? Will she always be soo drugged up that she doesn't interact? What are the side effects? Should the shunt be taken out?
Please help me understand!