September 11, 2008 - Prayer Request

Hello Everyone. We want to ask for your prayers for Erik and our family. He has been taking a medication that is very effective for controlling his seizures that we now have to stop. The problem with this medication is that it lowers his sodium level causing muscle tone and heart strain. We have tried to manage this but have found that even trying other medications has not been as effective as this medication. His seizure activity has been slowly increasing over the past few weeks. The decision was made on Tuesday to stop this medication and if needed add another at some point. Labs were drawn Tuesday so we are waiting for the results to know how to proceed. As has happened in the past when we have begun to lower this medication, immediately Erik's seizure activity increased and . . . yesterday was not a good day. He was lethargic, and had significant seizure activity. Not a good day for us at all! We are praying for the right medication to be identified for Erik. Our understanding is that the next class of medications have more serious side effects and our prayer has always been that we would not have to go to these. Our ultimate prayer remains for the seizures to dissipate completely!!! Medication changes bring with them 4-6 months of challenges - specifically with seizure activity. That is the thing with seizures, because of the way the body processes the medications, it takes so much time to get the medications to a level that is effective and then while you are working on this, seizure activity generally increases. Yesterday was a bad day but you know . . . that day is done and in the past! We know that God has something exciting waiting for us on the other side of the current challenge because the enemy is definitely working hard to deter us!!! We will all have to continue to lift each other up in prayer! Love in Christ, Erik's Family