Hey, Kelly. :)
Have you been completely forthcoming about your epi? I am a bio mom of two and always thought my med issues (controlled epilepsy and controlled hydrocephalus) might exclude me, but since I have bio kids, I never really looked into it.
The one thing I can say about how I have been affected is that my son's autism greatly added to my stress, especially early-on, and I had six GM szs in 2 years, having had a total of only about 18 in my life, the first as a baby. After arguing with myself and docs about med for some time, I finally opted to go back to a small dose of med after this occurrence, but my simple partial clusters (as many as 40 in 24 hours at season change) continued until I started Keppra last year. My life is still very stressful, but it's better now that my son is older and able to do more for himself (he's 16).
I would seriously consider the issues a foster child would bring into your life. I won't tell you not to do it, but realize that kids in the foster system are often abused and neglected and will have serious issues of their own that can greatly increase the stress in your daily life. Of course, surgery or not, that can greatly increase your risk of szs.
Put all of it on the table. Weigh EVERY pro and con, and have a plan. Is your husband willing to fully take over if you suddenly start to have serious problems with your epi again? Could he handle that, your other child(ren), and any issues additional children may have?
Be honest with yourselves and each other, and then decide.
Good luck!
LIZARD :)
--- On Sat, 7/31/10, Kelly Porter <kellyporter@frontiernet.net> wrote:
From: Kelly Porter <kellyporter@frontiernet.net>
Subject: [epilepsy] new adventure
To: epilepsy@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 6:01 PM
Hoping to hear form some of you who have raised more then one child
while you have epilepsy. My husband and I have talked extensively about
becoming foster parents and we completed our training last weekend. We
are now in the process of filling out a mound of paperwork.
My seizures are mostly under control. Over 2 years post surgical and I
have one minor partial complex or simple partial seizure a week on
average. None of them cause automations any more, which were horrid
before surgery. I am still on trileptal. I do have some other things
going on, like intermittent pain dependent upon how much I do
physically. I am on Lyrica for this and mostly I live with it and work
around it.
We have one 9 year old boy who is totally on board with this.
I have wanted to do this for years, and my husband is completely in
agreement. The one thing that concerns me is how it might effect my
health. I have thought and thought about this and can't really think of
any major down sides, only minor ones.
Any thoughts form any of you who have raised your kids since being
diagnosed?
Kelly P
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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