Dr. Chez/Chicago

[Guest guest]

I wrote into the group a while back regarding my 3 year olds slow

progress. At the time I was very discouraged with her progress and

whated some advise from the group. Someone suggested that I take her

to see Dr. Chez a ped. neurologist in the Chicago area. Although I

had previously taken her to a neurologist at Children's in Chicago, I

thought it was worth a try to see Dr. Chez. He listened to my

concerns...Emeline was waking up at night and would stay up for a

couple/few hours. Initially she would be really upset then calm down

but her body appeared very jumpy and she was unable to calm herself

to a sleeping state. Emeline also has low mousle tone and oral motor

difficulties. In addition she was diagnosed with apraxia head to toe

at age 19 months. Emeline has received services since 19 months of

age. After hearing her history, he ordered a 24 hour EEG and

indicated that he

thought he problem was nerologically based. Results came back that

she was having epileptic spikes in her sleep at 3 and 4 in the

morning (typically times that she worke at night). He fully

explained the situation to me and recommended depakote, an anti-

seizure medication. At first I was very aprehensive about medicating

her but did not want to have her continue with the epileptic spikes.

I spoke to a few medical professionals and debated the medication.

In the end I decided I had to try it. She has been on the depakote

for three weeks w/out and adverse side effects (she got a little

crabby at first but this subsided within 4 or 5 days). We have not

been up at night with her in 2 and a half weeks, she has become more

active, and has started initiating some speech (her teachers and

related service providers comment daily on how well she is doing!!).

At this point we feel that everything is looking up for the first

time in her life. I hope and pray she will conitinue on this road

and just wanted to pass this experience on to others.