Thanks so much for responding! I realized I must have been in quite a state when I wrote that.....I posted on BT1 a few times, not BT2, and my daughter wears SMO's not AFO's. Sorry but I figure you got the drift.

Kathleen, i had tears in my eyes when I read your post. I don't feel so alone. Our daughters sound so similar. I hope your EEG and MRI go well. I still haven't heard from the Neurosurgeon. Helen's teacher told me yesterday that Helen came to school on Tuesday and just laid on the floor for about an hour saying she had a headache. She was going to call me, but then she perked up and was fine. and that evening we had a great night, she wanted to watch TV and I told her no, but that she could help set the table for dinner...and she happily obliged, she loved studying her sight words, and played happily with her sister for a time. Go figure!

I do sometime suspect the meds. She is on depakote, trileptal, ditropan, sulfaprim, and miralax. Wow. I have heard that the first gen sulfa drugs had a side affect of headaches, but the newer gen have alleviated that side affect. I have heard one personal story that depakote can cause aggressive behavior, but have found nothing in my research on it. I don't think the behavior is seizure related. She has nasty seizures, she had a seizure cluster that lasted up to 3 hours, they had her dosed up with Ativan and it wasn't working, finally IV dilantin did the trick. Her EEG's never show anything. We are fortunate that the diastat has worked so far in stopping the seizures. She hasn't had one for 7 months knock wood.

We are keeping up with the sticker chart. I agree that consistency is important, though sometimes I feel like she laughs in my face when I remind her of her sticker chart. She knows what she needs to do, sometimes just doesn't want to do it. Do you think sometimes that kids with these medical problems feel they have no control over anything in their life, that they try to gain control in other inappropriate areas?

I have thought about modifying her diet....actually the whole family. I don't know how I would do that though. She lives on cheese, yogurt, milk, and potato chips, with a little bit of broccoli tossed in now and then. What do you replace those with? I was so happy because on Tuesday night she actually ate a whole apple, she hates apples! And what is gluten? Isn't it in everything like the whole grain side of the pyramid?!

Thanks so much for listening, and any and all input.