Julie Michaels remembers the day her daughter lost her smile.
At 6 months of age, Julie had noticed her daughter’s skills were regressing, but the lack of a smile was the most noticeable of all.
“It was probably the hardest thing as a parent, just for her to be expressionless – no joy there at all,” she said of her daughter Sydney Michaels. “It was really hard.”
Dravet Syndrome — a rare and catastrophic form of intractable epilepsy that begins in infancy — was the culprit behind the latest development.
“If she’s seizing a lot, we see regressions,” Michaels, of Connellsville, said. “We’ve had at least three, maybe four regressions since this whole thing started, where she has to go through a time of regaining skills that have been lost.”
