WEXFORD — Heather Shuker is thrilled about the state House of Representatives’ 149-43 vote to approve the sale and use of medical marijuana.

That action may lead to alleviating the hundreds of grand mal seizures her daughter experiences each month.

“There’s hope now because it’s something that I think will give her a better quality of life,” Shuker said.

The seizure condition that doctors have been unable to diagnose has robbed Hannah Pallas, 12, of her ability to speak. Shuker blames the loss of speech not on the seizures, but on the side effects of the many prescription drugs Hannah has taken all her life.

“These medicines, over the years, have debilitated her,” Shuker said. “There are just so many negative side effects to these drugs.”

Hannah has been on 18 epilepsy drugs since her seizures began in infancy, some of which carry side effects such as kidney or liver failure, bleeding, severe depression and even increased seizures, Shuker said.

She has had to pull her daughter out of school because Hannah’s difficulty swallowing can cause her to aspirate. Because of that, she now is fed through a tube surgically placed into her stomach.

Shuker also has moved from Middlesex Township to Wexford to a single-level apartment.

“It was getting too difficult to get Hannah in and out of the house,” she said.

The House passed the medical marijuana bill on March 15, and the Senate which approved the bill 40-7 last summer, is expected to vote on the House-revised bill this week.

“I’m ecstatic,” Shuker said. “I’m anxious for it to get through the Senate and off to the governor for his signature. I’m hoping it happens in the next couple of weeks so we can get the time line going.”

She expects it will take 18 to 24 months until medical marijuana is available because it will take time to set up dispensaries and attain licensing.

The bill would legalize the smokeless use of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, as a doctor-prescribed treatment and create a state-run bureaucracy, the state Board of Medical Cannabis Licensing, to oversee growers, processors and dispensers of the drug.

The bill would allow marijuana use by people with a serious medical condition.

The bill enumerates 18 “serious conditions” for which medical marijuana may be used, such as:

Severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is ineffective.

Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with neurological indication of intractable spasticity.

Epilepsy.

Autism.

Crohn’s Disease.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Intractable Seizures.

Glaucoma.

Shuker can’t help but dream of her daughter having a normal life, learning, laughing and playing like other children.

She said that was the case a few years ago with a young Colorado girl, Charlotte Figi, who suffered 1,200 seizures per month and was sent home from a hospice to die. As a last resort, her parents gave her medical marijuana.

“After the first dose, she didn’t have seizures for a week,” Shuker said.

Now on a regular regimen, Charlotte has been 99 percent seizure free for more than two years and lives a normal life.

In his blog, Gov. Tom Wolf said the medical marijuana bill will allow the doors to be open to those suffering from seizures, cancer and other ailments.

“It is long past time to provide this important medical relief to patients and families across the commonwealth, and I thank the quick action by the state House to bring us a huge step closer to legalizing medical marijuana,” Wolf said in his blog.

On April 5, Hannah will turn 13, confounding the doctors who said she would not live to be a teenager.

To celebrate, her mother is planning a red-carpet birthday party.

But more than the birthday gala, Shuker anticipates Hannah trying medical marijuana in the hopes of providing her with some relief.

“I can’t wait to see her smile again,” she said. “She’s such a sad little girl now.”