Sharon
Sorry to hear the journey your son has started. My son has been having seizures for over 27 years and we've tried about every combination of AE drug out there with little success. To be honest all of them have serious side effects. And over a long period of time there are accumulative side effects are effect your behavior, and cognitive thinking. My son has a VNS about 2 years ago and we're really no better off than before. About the the only positive thing i can say we've experienced is that when you activate the VNS with your magnet it does shorten and generally prevents him from going into multi-clusters. Which are very BAD. But epilepsy is different for everyone, so don't accept or reject every option that is shared with you. Do your own research get every question answered, and THEN go with your gut feeling. Next moth my son is having a DBS implant at Mayo where the rod tips are graphed with stem cells. This is a new twist on the DBS surgery only the second one done by the Mayo group. One thing i would suggest is get your son genetically test. You don't know , what you don't know.
Good luck and God Bless
james