Not a lot has changed seizure-wise since my last post. John continues to have at least 1 cluster of seizures every day. Each cluster has between 5-12 seizures. The cluster lasts a couple of minutes, and the seizures themselves are just head drops. We have lowered his Felbatol from from a high of 12ml/day down to 9ml/day. We didn't see any change in his seizures, so that is good news. I feel more comfortable with this lower dose.
Since we lowered the Felbatol, we think John has gotten more talkative. He babbles a lot now, and sometimes seems to say words that make sense, though its never clear so we can't be sure. He has also started to cry non-stop at school lately. Yoshie had to pick him up twice this week. He's always seemed to like school, so we're not sure what changed. Yoshie suggested that maybe he is just a little clearer after the Felbatol reduction, so he has a some separation anxiety again.
John has also been going to speech therapy twice a week at our local university. I had a chance to observe him the other day. It's really more like play time than therapy, but at least he likes it. So far Yoshie has had to remain in the room most of the time. Hopefully that will change soon.

We had an appt. with the neurologist on Monday. As expected, we got an appt. for another "24 hour" EEG. We'll be doing that next week. He told us that he still believes John's seizures are generalized, but there is a 25% chance that they could be focal. It was enough of a chance that we decided to pursue it. If the EEG shows a focal point, then we'll have another MRI. If the MRI shows something in that area, then we'll continue with further testing. The end result would be a surgery to remove that section of the brain. But, there are many, many steps before we get to there and if any step along the way doesn't show a clear focal point, then we'll stop. The chance of actually getting to the point of a surgery is very small.
After the EEG, we are also going to increase his Keppra slightly. Since it has worked so well, I think there is a decent chance that an increase will help him.
Finally, the VNS is completely dead, so we'll be getting that replaced shortly. As always, we only want to do one thing at a time, so it might be another month or two before that gets done. We got to see the new VNS, and it is remarkably smaller than his current one. It also has more functionality. We're not looking forward to putting John through another surgery, but this one is low risk. I doubt we'd even have to stay overnight. The hardest part will be keeping John from poking at the incision.