In January of 2017 my 16-year-old son, who had hardly been sick his entire life, collapsed with a tonic-colonic seizure. This was the start of a marathon of multiple tonic-colonic seizures he had that day, which resulted in him being air-lifted to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City after an anomaly on his brain was discovered on CT. While in the hospital, Chandler was diagnosed with epilepsy secondary to a brain lesion on his right temporal lobe and started on Keppra to control his seizures. Chandler has tonic-colonic, focal seizures and aura seizures. As the seizures continued, his dosage of Keppra was increased over a period of several months. Keppra is known to cause mood swings of varying degrees in the people taking it, and we quickly realized that Chandler was on the extreme side of this with what they called “Keppra rages”. He was very hostile and mean and we no longer recognized our normally sweet and kind son. Because of this side effect, we were switched to a new medication called Trileptal, which had a beneficial affect on Chandler’s mood, but made him very sleepy and it only worked for about 6 months and Chandler’s seizures soon returned. Due to continued seizure activity, he was quickly maxed out on his dose, so we were again changed to a new medicine called Vimpat. Even with insurance, Vimpat is very expensive, but we were out of options. So far, Vimpat has been the most successful at controlling Chandler’s seizures, but he still has them frequently; mainly at night. We were out of options, the neurologist was willing to start him on a different medicine but she was honest in telling us that the likelihood of this working was <5%. While doing research for a new medication, a childhood friend reached out to me regarding the use of CBD and it’s success in reducing and/or preventing seizures. As a medical professional myself, I was admittedly skeptical, at first, but after doing research I quickly found that trying it would definitely not hurt, so I figured we didn’t have much to lose and put an order in with Medicineman global for both the Full Spectrum and the Isolate. I want to point out that not all CBD oils are created equal – I did a lot of research and CBD Fountain is organic and gluten free, which was very important and what our neurologist made us ensure. Additionally, Ryan at Medicineman global has been so wonderful to work with us in finding the right “cocktail” of medicine and dosages that worked for Chandler, as every individual is different. Ryan has been an amazing resource and you get not only quality CBD oil but also wonderful customer service. Chandler, who is now 19 years old, takes a dropper of the Isolate and Full-Spectrum before bedtime and has been seizure free for 5 months – which is amazing within itself. Chandler was having partial/aura seizures multiple times, per day, and tonic-colonic seizures at least once a week. His tongue was so bitten up before starting the CBD oil, from the frequent seizures, that he could hardly eat and had to frequently use a lidocaine infused mouthwash for pain. It is now completely healed up, which it had not been since the onset of his seizures. The only thing we have changed is the addition of the CBD oil, so logic tells us that this is what is working for him. As an added bonus, this has also had a positive effect on his mood and he also sleeps better. Sleep deprivation and extreme upset or anger are triggers for his seizures. Our plan is to have epilepsy surgery to remove Chandler’s lesion that is the cause of his seizures, we have reduced his Vimpat because of the seizures being controlled with CBD and will eventually completely wean him off of it, but the plan is to stay on CBD oil for the rest of his life. I am so glad we found CBD – it has completely changed our life.