Treatment options for people with difficult to control epilepsy

On Saturday I was a volunteer at a conference run by epilepsy about treatment options for people with difficult to control epilepsy.


It was great to help out and very interesting... here's a brief summary of the issues spoken about:

Epilepsy Surgery - I missed most of this talk as helping someone but it seemed very interesting and going to try to get hold of the lecture notes so maybe able to tell about more at a later date.

VNS - Vargal Nerve Stimulation, which is where impusles are sent from a small box to the Vargal nerve at intervals and has been shown to help many people with hard to treat epilepsy.

More info at:  

http://us.cyberonics.com/en/

Massage Therapy in patients and it's benefits... such as relaxation,  reducing anxiety, helping self confidence, giving you some me time.

Ketogenic Diet: Matthew's mum (from Matthew's friends) gave Matthew's very moving story and went on to discuss the benefits of the diet, addressing the myths and gave information on Adults using the Ketogenic Diet... it is possible, just not considered by many specialists at current time.

More info at: 

http://site.matthewsfriends.org/

Buccal Midazolam: information on it's administration, people had a lot of concerns over it's use over rectal diazepam... having given both all I can say is Midazolam is much easier to give and from a dignity point of view you cannot argue it.  I think people were a little concerned that the presentation was by a drug company rep but usually they know a lot more than some professionals.

Some more info from Great Ormond Street Hospital:

http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/medical-conditions/medicines-information/buccal-midazolam/

It was also wonderful to meet other women who are thinking of having a family as it has been really hard to get in contact with anybody. So just wanted to say hi if your reading this after the conference.  It was lovely to meet you guys and I hope the epilepsy action campaign and this blog might help you feel confident to become a mum :) feel free to contact me, would be great to hear from you :)