MRI before having a VNS installed

[mahansc]

For the most part my wife and i are somewhat happy with the results that our daughter is getting at the U. medical center but come to find out her current doc will not do a MRI since she already has a VNS installed. To me it would have made since to do a MRI before installing the VNS but hey im no doctor. He says the only reason to do an MRI if she is going to have surgery, Duh, whats the VNS. so we have began looking for another neurologist doc but since Kaitlynn has the VNS most other docs wont see her. we also asked about a new drug called Vimpat which from research it's having good results with the two meds she's on now (keppra and Lamictal). It almost seems as if his whole plan was to just keep her medicated the rest of her life and not worry about any other avenue not too good in my book.

anyone have any good ideas on how to get a 16 (almost 17yro next month) to accept her condition and start to do some research on her on to understand it. it's not like she just found out last month she was diagnosed with E at the age of 11. Rant over, thanks.

scott

[skillefer]

Hi Scott! Honestly, I wasn't much better then your daughter about researching stuff and advocating for myself when I was her age. That only occured once I was on my own. It might be the same for your daughter. My view when I was a teen was that I didn't have to worry about it because mom and dad were worrying enough.

[mahansc]

Hi Skillefer,

thats what it seems to be for her. I just need to break her of that habit thouguh

[RobinN]

I have a 17 yr old, and there is no way she is going to understand what is happening, other than the basics. I am lucky that she is willing to accept the alternative directions that I have found. I give her baby doses of the research for her to digest.

Early on I was not happy with the answers I was getting from conventional doctors. Too many contradictions, and it was not mapping out well with other contemporary evidence that I was reading about online. I have been a rebel and gone away from mainstream medicine, and my daughter is 99% better than she was when she was under HMO doctors.

as my sig line says... knowledge is power, and we must take an active role in our health care.