Hi Lyn

thanks for your reply

i posted this quite some time ago... my friend's mom is in stasis... situation unchanged. she remains on the phenytoin - it is brand (and yes, i know of the horrors with generics! )

my friend has not said anything about the seizures in a while, but then absences are hard to observe. they only actually observed 2, one of which was on eeg.

phenytoin is not really indicated for absences... we still don't know why they gave it to her. my friend insisted they said only absence seizures and no other types... but that they couldn't give her any other AEDs... which corresponds to what you suggest - least side effects/easiest to manage.

i guess it begs the question why bother treat occasional absence seizures - the lady is paralyzed with kidney and liver functions compromised... so lets throw some useless meds at her see if we can kill her off? i guess i was trying to understand that...

anyway... i guess in spite of everything she is ok. of course, we can't know how comfortable/uncomfortable she is, because she can't talk and is not really "there" mentally/neurologically. but she is alive... it is so sad. i was supposed to go visit but it is hard for my friend to juggle everything so we'll see...

i see you are pretty new... welcome to Neurotalk and thanks again for your thoughtful post!

~ waves ~