This letter has been created by the Epilepsy Foundation to make explicitly sure that no substitutions are made to your prescription without full consent by you and your doctor. You might want to make a copy of it for your files.

Dear Pharmacist:

Thank you for providing me with the valuable service of filling my needed prescriptions. The purpose of this letter is to let you know that I have epilepsy and it is vital that I receive the same medication from the same manufacturer monthly in order to maintain the expected level of seizure control and side effects. Please ensure that no changes are made to my medications, including a change in manufacturer, without prior consent from my physician and myself. Please note this request in my file. To assist you, I have listed below the name, manufacturer, and dosage of the medications I am currently taking.

Thank you…

(Then and Now on Chapter 19: Just a Mama)

I guess this still stings because it was the beginning of my letting go of a lot my expectations for myself and for Rose. Neurologist #1 had warned us about this. I did not want to hear it. She let us know that the path for Rose would no longer be straight. It felt like a slap at the time. Her words echoed in my mind many times through the years. I ended up appreciating these “mean” words.

I want to be clear here, Other Mothers, that this was not a lowering of my expectations for us, it was a morphing. We all have plans and aspirations. It was necessary to let go of these remote dreams and reach for goals that were near-by and doable. Flexibility became absolutely essential. Raising Rose required careful, slower steps to get where she is…