Ethosuximide - a positive experience

My son was diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy in January. He was prescribed generic Zarontin which is known as ethosuximide. Don't ask me how to pronounce that as no one seems to know. And while we're on the subject it's pronounced "absance" not "absense." (sigh)

As any parent would be, I was  concerned about how my son would tolerate this drug. Almost as much as I was concerned with the fact his brain was seizing up several times a day. Now that I understand that is indeed what is.was happening, it is hard to watch.

Anyway, I went online and did my research to see what sort of side effects this drug has. And they are terrifying. Blood disorders, lupus, grand mal seizures and more. However, there were also a few people who said the drug really helped them a lot.  My sense from all the reading I did was that this is a drug that is very specific to this particular type of epilepsy. If it turns out you don't have this type of epilepsy, it will aggravate whatever your real condition is. If, however, you do have this condition, it should do a very good job of controlling your seizures.

I wanted to write this post to let other parents dealing with this diagnosis know that my son is doing great on this drug. He has had no side affects. His blood work is fine (no negative effect there). His personality is the same as it always has been. No upset tummy, no rashes, nothing. All it does is control his seizures. And yes, it really does work. We just got back from an EEG and they were unable to induce a seizure in him, which, to my mind is nothing short of a miracle given how many he had been having. Homework time is now easy and takes just a fraction of the time it used to.

He has only been on this drug for 2 months now and his levels aren't where they need to be as his dosage is really low (about 1/4 of what is allowed for his weight ). His doctor figures it is better to start low and build up to the ideal level than start high. The only problem we have had is that because the dosage is low when the drug wears off he starts having seizures again. We have upped his dosage to see if that takes care of the problem, which I'm optimistic it will since when he gets a slightly higher dosage because, let's face it no one is exact in pouring out the exact amount prescribed, he does better.

The bottom line is this drug is working for my son and he hasn't had any side effects from it at all. So, if you wanted to hear a good success story with this drug, you've got one.