Brandi Sharp tends to find herself restless at night.
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Her 13-year-old daughter, Cambrie, has uncontrolled seizures. Sharp, a mother of three, is constantly up, checking to make sure Cambrie is breathing.
During the day, when she’s not at work as a school nurse, Sharp, of rural Hazel Dell, Illinois, is laser-focused on finding effective treatment for Cambrie’s epilepsy. It’s all-consuming, she said.
“We tried everything,” Sharp said, listing off more than 20 anti-seizure medications Cambrie’s doctors have prescribed over an eight-year span, including multiple benzodiazepines and phenobarbital.
“The medications that typically work for kids don’t work for her. They cause a lot of rebounds,” she said. “The way the neurologist explains it is her epilepsy adapts, and so her brain waves adapt.”