I don't want to offend anyone so this title is "Damné si vous faites damné si vous ne faites pas"

Hope you don't know french if you are offended by the phrase. lol   Anyway, Keira's Keppra med is not working. Her seizures have reduced, but not enough to make any of us feel comfortable (including Keira) Sometimes she cries after one and has refused to eat or drink because she knows that it is a trigger. The Ped Neuro is worried that she will a) suffer brain damage if we don't get the seizures under control or b) move on to the diagnosis of severe myclonic or some other Epilepsy if they don't stop. I knew that he said this was a possibility when he first diagnosed her, but we were so happy it was not infantile spasms and the MRI came out normal, any other form of Epilepsy was ignored.  We just felt relief.
At this point, she is not showing any signs of developmental delays, but she has lost skills in verbal areas. She was ahead in that area anyway. Regardless, she is still on track in all areas.  I was on top of that pre-diagnosis anyway.
The next line of medications to take on her type of seizures is Depakote.  This medication comes with a string of side effects with the most alarming one being liver failure. 1 in 1,000 infants end up with it.  He said the majority that develop liver failure have developmental delays already or an underlying metabolic disorder. It also can lead to pancreas problems (yes, he knows about K's T1D)  Knowing that our family is not favored when it comes to statistics, this makes me even more worried.  I just can't naively say, "What are the chances?" in my head, because my thought train is pretty good at predicting that ANYTHING can happen now.  Let's face it, lightening (so to speak) has struck us quite a bit lately.
After talking about it at length with Seth though, we have decided that we would rather get the seizures under control than risk permanent developmental delays. We will watch her like a hawk and get liver testing constantly if we have to. According to the Ped Neuro, he is pretty sure she has none of the underlying disorders.  So, tonight she starts Depakote. A hard core drug that is used as an anti-psychotic for bi-polar disorder etc.. too.  It's first use was for Epilepsy though. Here's to hoping it does not change our sweet babies personality, or makes her sick and gets the seizures under control.