One More, and Some Updates

I had a seizure this morning at about 9 AM. After having a seizure last night, there was good reason to get to bed early, and I had less difficulty than usual getting to sleep. However, I woke up around 4:15 AM, and after about 2 and a half hours of trying to get back to sleep I gave up. I did some Bible reading, ten chapters of Luke, then read some of the Gospel Primer, and then got into conversations with my brothers, who had finally woke up. In the middle of a conversation which was being interrupted by Sam's giggles, an aura started, I got up and swiped a magnet, got back in bed, and woke up around half an hour later.

After about one seizure every two weeks during my first semester, and now three seizures after trying some adjustments of my medicines during the break, Mom, Dad, and I are thinking that I may have to forget about Spring '10 at LeTourneau University.

It will be sad to leave after the first semester, but I have faith that I will be able to return for Fall '10 and on. With around 8 months at home (with some community college classes), I have hope of finding another way to have my brain scanned and surgically therapized (I'm not sure if that's a word, but it is intuitive).

Thank you all for your prayers.

I was worried that my GPA was too low to keep a scholarship, but I found the grades online and was elated to find it higher than I had expected. Praise the Lord for inspiring grading on curves!

Two seizures

Tonight David had a pretty bad seizure. Last Tuesday night he had a really bad one. A few days before that, Dr. Maleeva had given him some samples of an extended release form of one of his meds so that he would just take it once a day rather than twice. Then if he forgot his morning dose it would only be one med, not both. When he had a seizure last Tuesday we immediately went back to the old form of the medicine hoping that he would be stable again. But tonight he had another seizure.

Please pray. We are learning that we can choose not to worry, and to try to trust God and rest in his plans instead. We think God will work out everything for David for the best. Imagining how he has gotten us through before this, and how he will get us through in the future, is better than imagining the bad stuff.

Thank you so much.

Two Finals Down, Three to go

Yesterday I did the final for Concepts of Lifetime Fitness (referred to by students as "Fatness"), and I am confident that I did well.

This morning, I took the final for General Chemistry Lab 1, and I am expecting about 82% on that test.

I also took the English Proficiency Test today, which decides whether I need to take a review class. I am expecting somewhere between 90 and 100% on that, but I do not know what score is needed to pass.

There are several things that must be done by midnight Friday, and some other things that must be done earlier.

Next week is the official finals week, with the finals for Intro to Psychology and English Comp 1 on Monday and the final for Calculus 3 on Tuesday.

Please pray that the end of the semester will go as well as the rest of it did.

God has blessed me abundantly so far, and I hope to finish this semester strong.

Thank you for your prayers, and please continue.

Record, but it Came

Twenty-seven days with no seizures is a record for my time at LeTourneau.

However, the clock has been reset, as tonight, at 6:35 PM CST, I had a seizure.

It was very uncomfortable, especially since I did not have a magnet available at the time.

I also have some cleanup to do.

To change the key, it has been a nice Thanksgiving break, and I have enjoyed getting much done, especially a good part of a speech for English Composition 1.

Thank you for your prayers.

Fun and Anger

Dad told me yesterday afternoon about climategate, the discovery of over a thousand emails between workers and data files at the Climate Research Unit, which were held from the public eye against the law of the Freedom of Information Act.

I looked into it, and it was amazing. Here are some links that I found:

Fox News gives the introduction here.
Two ideas for how the info was made public, as well as a theory of how it was possible to make it public, here.
A real climatologist talks about what this means here.
A summary of some of the files is given here (don't be scared when you see how far you can scroll down; nearly all of it is comments by readers).
For a page with a link to a site with a searchable database of all the publicized files, click here.
For a page that sums up most of the important stuff, click here.
Some more links: Washington Times article; Senator Inhofe will call for investigation; CEI will sue NASA for breaking Freedom of Information Act laws; Climate Research Unit fumbles for excuse; Lord Monckton shows all that is wrong
If these links and the links within them are not enough, google "climategate", and see more.

There is anger that the world has been robbed of so many trillions of dollars by these liars, but there is also joy in seeing them come to light.

Nice Times

I've gone three weeks now with no seizures, which might be a record when the domain is limited to my time at LeTourneau.

God continues to bless me.

I've been somewhat lazy this weekend, but I got one thing done ahead of time, and this coming week will end on Wednesday, and hopefully I will be able to rip ahead.

Thank you for your prayers. I am having a good time.

PS. But I am looking forward eagerly to Christmas Break! A month at home!!!

Wondrous Blessings

Two and a half weeks ago, I had a wonderful experience. Before writing a post about it, I decided to write about the seizure I had had two days before. I never got around to finishing the post I started writing, until now.

On the evening of Saturday, October 30, I prayed and asked God to reveal to me what had been making me feel unsatisfied with my spiritual life for the past year plus. I had been feeling like something is wrong, missing, incorrect, but I had not been able to identify it or completely cope with it. It had been bothering my mind, and I was not sure why.

The next morning, at Crossroads Community Church, the sermon was a bit different than usual. It was not so much of a topical lecture, as I would classify most sermons at most churches, but it was instead very interactive. Pastor Bud Miller gave an introduction of showing how God shows Himself to so many people in the Bible - Adam and Eve, Moses, Balaam, Isaiah, the disciples, Paul, just to take a few from the list. He drew from that that we should have interaction with God. After he was done talking, everyone was invited to come up and pray, alone or with others. I went up front and told him that I was sure that my prayer the night before had been answered. He then prayed with me, thanking God for what He had done, and asking Him to come and make Himself present in me. For the rest of the service, I had the Holy Spirit in me, and it moved my emotions so that I had tears flowing the whole time. I had none of the usual difficulty concentrating on what was being prayed, said, or sung, but was worshiping God with my whole heart.

Ever since that experience, I have been feeling a lot better about my walk with the Lord.

Another answer to the prayer came in an unexpected form. The Saturday I prayed for revelation, or the day before, I had been thinking about theological things - what was truly meant by "blaspheming the Holy Spirit." I went off on the wrong turn, and imagined an example of blaspheming the Father. Ever since then, I have had little rest from that example entering my mind. The thought crossed my mind after a few days that it might serve some purpose, but I did not want to try and put such a bad thing to good use; I just wanted to get rid of it. As it came near two weeks with that thought crossing my mind at least a dozen times a day, I decided to try more than just changing the subject when it came to my mind. One evening, I saw the bath towel hanging on my door, which I have often forgotten when going to the shower, and I decided to attach "I need to take the towel to the shower" to the feeling that came before the terrible thought. That worked nearly every time the next day, and I was relieved. It didn't continue to work, though, and I decided to think about the need for prayer every time the thought came, and thus make it serve a good purpose.

Thus, something bad was turned into something good that I have needed for a long time.

By the way, I have had no seizures since my last post, and very few auras.

Thank you all for your prayers, and please email me with any prayer requests you have.

If you don't have my address, perhaps send it to my parents and ask them to forward it to me.

God is good!

//

Apparently Blogger remembered and labeled this by the date I started it, rather than the day I published it

One More Seizure

Last night, I was eating dinner at DoubleDave's Pizzaworks, (the best pizza restaurant on the planet), with my floor chaplain Joe Bailey and his parents. We were enjoying a small veggie pizza and a large The Works pizza (you can probably guess who ate which), and I was telling Mr. and Mrs. Bailey about my epilepsy story.

I had gotten to the part of the trauma in the hospital, and then I decided to eat one slice beyond being full. I'm not sure whether having an overloaded stomach had anything to to with it, but when I was about 2/3 of the way through the slice, a harsh aura started.

I told them that a seizure was starting, and as I got out the magnet they started praying. Like the last few, I was semi-conscious the whole time, and when it ended I was not able to speak. Nothing worse happened, and I had full motor control. We went back to their car and drove back to campus. En route I tried a few times to continue the story, but I was not able to connect the thoughts and words.

When I got back spent some time relaxing in the floor lounge, watching The Two Towers on the new projector with others. After a while I left the lounge, and found that Mr. and Mrs. Bailey were still there, and since my speech had fully returned I told them the rest of the story.

Afterwards I called Mom on Skype, and told her what had happened. It was interesting that this was the first seizure since surgery that has not started while looking at a computer/TV screen.

Please keep praying. God is blessing me, as I will expound upon in the next post.

A Close One

I was working for about an hour on a review paper about Google Chrome (the best browser ever, in case you didn't know), and then I had an aura.

I got somewhat anxious, which I am sure can only make things worse, and got my magnet out of my pocket and swiped it.

The aura was at the intensity where it has always turned into a seizure in the past, but I prayed and it stopped.

Praise the Lord.

Another Nice Test

On my first Calc test, I expected to get up to 96%, and I got 94%.

For the second test, which I took one week ago, I expected to get up to 100%.

I just got it back today, and it was 96%.

Homework is 1/11 of the whole grade, and until now I haven't been doing too well at it, getting about 30-40% of the problems done. However, after the Fall Break, I am starting to get ahead, and I am hoping to turn in more complete homework the rest of the semester. Today's homework, the first assignment to be turned in after the break, was complete, and I hope to continue that as a trend.

Another nice thing the break did for me was to pay off some of my sleep debt. I am now less tired, and I hope being ahead on work will help me to maintain a good Circadian rhythm (sleep cycle).

Some Somewhat Random News

As my Fall Break draws to an end, I am trying (not quite hard enough, as you can see from the fact that I am making a post) to get an early head start on my Calculus homework.

Yesterday I received three nice things together in the mail - two DVDs, Unlocking the Mystery of Life and Darwin's Dilemma, and something I've been missing for two months: my Leatherman Micra.

Wow. Google Chrome, the browser I'm using to write this, does not have "Leatherman" in its spell check dictionary, but it does have "Featherman". But other than the funniness of the dictionary, which in truth all browsers indubitably share, Chrome is a great browser. It is faster than any of the others, and the area devoted to toolbars is nil, so there is much more of the actual site that you can see.

Last two nights I had about 10 hours of sleep each, paying off my sleep debt (or at least a good portion of it) and making me much more resilient. I hope to keep a good Circadian rhythm (regular sleep cycle) going for the rest of the semester. When I had one last fall, I temporarily stopped needing Rozerem (my Rx sleep med).

I hadn't heard the "Spike" song in a long time, and then I listened to it a few days ago. I can't really get it out of my head, but I don't really mind that. The humor, plus the memories, make it nice.

I missed yesterday morning's dose of medicine, but I don't think it's much cause for alarm. I got up after 9 AM that morning, while I usually get up around 7:30, so I don't expect the error to be repeated that easily. Also, I don't think it will cause any seizures, because as I mentioned before, the sleep I've gotten has made my brain stronger.

And another seizure

22 and a half hours ago, I had just come back to my dorm after watching Unlocking the Mystery of Life with one other student (I had been hoping to challenge the size of the room, which has 100 seats, but no).

I sat down in front of my computer, opened a random file and looked at it, and then an aura started. I think it still followed the pattern of each seizure being harsher than the next, but it was a seizure. Like the previous three, I was conscious the whole time but had difficulty speaking for a while after it ended - something between 15 minutes and 1 hour.

I think a large part in starting that seizure was played by missing out on sleep the last two or three nights. I don't think missing the dose on Wednesday morning had any significant role; I am pretty sure that the levels in my blood were back up by the time I had the seizure.

I am hoping to get caught up and ahead, perhaps a week ahead, in all of my classes, as Monday and Tuesday are part of a 4-day weekend. Please pray that I will get much done, and have wisdom as to what to put time into.

Thank you for you prayers, and God bless you all.

Alert! Alert!

I just found out that I missed my medicine this morning; that's twice with less than a one week separation.

I will raise my level of caution in the mornings, and always make sure I took my medicine before leaving for class.

I have been doing pretty well yesterday and today in terms of feeling prone to have auras. Avoiding the computer/tv screen, where all of my seizures since the surgery have happened, has helped.

Please pray that I will not forget any more medicine, and that I will not have any more seizures.

Thank you for your prayers.

The Monthly Popcorn Ceremony

About 20 minutes ago, right now being 6:30 PM Central Time, I sat down at my desk to start doing some homework, and the fire alarm went off.

This was the third time, I think, that this has happened while I've been here. The first time it was because someone had overcooked popcorn in his microwave, hence the title of this post. The second time, the Resident Director told me that it was not popcorn, but I still haven't been told what it was. This time, someone had actually pulled the alarm. I imagine the fine for doing that should be higher than for burning popcorn and setting off the smoke detector.

So, about once a month everyone gets out of the building in the evening and waits outside the door for the fire engines to come, then looks a little while at the flashing lights, some comments are exchanged about the W's of the alarm, there is some cheering as the RD comes running over from dinner, we wait another few minutes, and then it's verified that there is no fire and we enter the dorm again.

And, as you can see, while before the alarm went off, we were on the track towards getting some work done, we are all freshly distracted after the alarm.

Wonderful Test Scores

Friday the 9th, I took my second Intro to Psychology exam. I had done about 3 or 4 hours of study for the exam, but I had been hoping to do more, like 6 hours, and nearly one hour of the study had been last minute, which had not been my plan.

The psychology professor, Dr. Melanie Roudkovski, or Dr. R as she signs her name on emails and invites us to address her, is very nice at tests. The exams are about 50 questions long, all multiple choice, answered on a Scantron, except for the 5 point extra credit question which answered on the question sheets. So, it's theoretically possible to get 110% on a test, or at least to redeem up to 5 wrong answers.

For this last test, I checked all the uncertain problems after answering all the problems that I was sure of the answer to, and figured out the most likely answers to most of those, and made best guesses at the rest. By the end, I was confident in the answers to all but ten of the problems, and figured that I ought to get more than one out of four of the uncertain problems right.

I also did my best at the extra credit question, which was totally by hand. The challenge was to find an example of classical conditioning in my life. Classical conditioning is learning to associate something neutral, called a conditioned stimulus, with something called an unconditioned stimulus, that naturally evokes a response, or an unconditioned response, until there is a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus identical to the unconditioned response to the unconditioned stimulus. The first example in the textbook when we learned about these was dogs hearing sounds or seeing something before they were given food, and starting to salivate upon hearing or seeing those things without any food present.

So, my example of classical conditioning was how association of sweets with seizures may have had a part in making me dislike things that taste too sweet.

I don't know yet exactly how many questions I got right and wrong and what score the extra credit got, but I have seen my total score, which is 51 out of 50. So, now that I'm above 100% on this test, I take notice that it could have been even better, but I will try to repress feelings of discontent with the past and push on for the future.

10/14/09 Accuracy Update: In class this morning we were given our tests back. I had noticed during the test that there were 54 questions as opposed to 50 on the first test, and I had been somewhat curious about that. It was revealed in class that 4 of the questions were not counted - the first 4 each person got wrong. So, I got full credit for the extra credit, I got 8 questions out of 54 wrong, and then 4 was subtracted from the numerator and the denominator of the fraction I got wrong.

I have such a nice teacher.

Some Psychology

Last night, I went to a time management seminar. The main speaker was my Intro to Psychology professor, Dr. Melanie Roudkovski. She gave some very helpful information, focusing not only on managing time but also on life-management. One of the many handouts was "Dr. R's Top 10 Rules of Life Management", which are:

1. Do what you like and like what you do; find something you like about everything you have to do, and focus on that.
2. Take responsibility; "I didn't make time" instead of "I didn't have time"
3. Just say NO to things that waste time
4. Write details, details, details into your schedule; just putting "Study" on a 2-hour block can lead to more than half of the time being wasted, while writing "Do Math Assignment #12, Write outline of Essay #3" will help you get on the right track quickly
5. Accuracy is key; try hard not to overestimate or underestimate the time you will need to do something
6. Distraction kills time; be here now
7. Live up to your own expectations, or expect more of yourself
8. Be organized
9. Develop healthy relationships
10. Set aside time in which you can be spontaneous

Another speaker, an alumna of LeTourneau, handed out a sheet that showed how to sort stressors on two dimensions - the possibility of changing them and the priority that they hold.

For things that are changeable and have high priority, you should ask what changes can be made; for things that are changeable but low priority, you should ask whether you are spending too much time on these things; for things that are high priority but hard to change, you should ask yourself how you will cope with these things; and for low priority, unchangeable things, you should ask yourself if you can accept or forget about them.

All of this was helpful, and a clearer picture is forming of how to manage my time. Another thing the LETU alumna said was that she has learned to view calendars on a monthly scale, rather than daily or weekly, as it shows her everything that is coming. This sounds like a great idea, and I hope to start laying out all my to-do things on a monthly calendar, but there is one thing I lack.

I would like to have a computer calendar program that has color-coding, and categories that can be selectively shown - perhaps more than one at a time but not all, though that would not be vital.

As I wrote that, I realized that my Palm Desktop has categories, but I haven't been using them. It is wonderful how much I can find out just by writing my problems down. So I guess I don't need new software, though color-coding still would be nice.

Astounding News

An hour and 20 minutes ago, I discovered that his morning was a momentous occasion:

I forgot my medicine for the first time since coming to Texas.

Until now, I have never forgotten a single dose.

Praise the Lord that I have been able to consistently remember this long, and may I be able to continue to remember.

Thank you all for your prayers, and please continue.

David Nemati

Now about something besides epilepsy

Here at LeTourneau University, my current class load is 13 credits, which is nice and light; good for the first semester in which all the adaptation to the new environment and ways of doing things is happening.

My classes are:

• Calculus 3
• English Composition 1
• Intro to Psychology
• Concepts of Lifetime Fitness (Fatness, for short)
• General Chemistry 1 Lab
• Cornerstones of Life and Learning

I am loving the Chem Lab and the Intro to Psychology, Comp 1 and Calculus are also good, and Fatness and Cornerstones are alright.

The order I put the classes in in terms of importance in my mind is something like

1. Calculus
2. English
3. Psychology
4. Chem lab
5. Fatness
6. Cornerstones

I am expecting an A in Calc and Chem lab, at least high or solid B's in English and Psychology, and while the secant lines of my progress in Cornerstones and Fatness are heading toward C's, I'm fixing to fix those. I am hoping for straight A's, but the above is what I might get if everything keeps going as it has been.

Thus, Cornerstones, which is supposed to be a light, easy class to help students get started, is not getting enough attention and I'm relying on the professor's mercy, allowing late assignments, a bit too much for the comfort of my conscience.

So, please pray for me that I will be able to correctly understand all of the assignments, remember everything I need to do, find time for each, and understand how to do quick jobs rather than perfectionist work where quick work is needed.

Thank you very much,

David

Or, as they call me here on my floor,

Post

PS. Did you notice my light touch of deliberate Texan-ness in the previous post?

I'm fixing to keep this seizure my last

This late afternoon/evening I went to Dr. Ball's house, a former colleague of Dad's who is now a professor at LeTourneau University, and I cooked Nemati Spaghetti for him and his family. That was a very fun time, and after dinner I played Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii with his sons.

Alas, I played too long, and (I'm guessing) part of my brain fell asleep while another part was over-exerted, and a seizure started. This happened about 3 hours ago as of the moment I am publishing this - 9:40 PM CDT.

Like the last two, I was conscious the whole time. However, this one was a bit gentler than the others, as it lasted less time and I got my speech back a lot faster. When I talked with Mom and Dad on the Webcam, Dad said that I didn't look like I'd had a seizure, and I did not feel like I had had a seizure.

I may be having a little too little sleep, so I'd better click Publish Post, and get to bed.

Thank y'all for your prayers, please continue, and God bless you.

In Christ's Love,

David Nemati

Another Seizure

Last night, at about 8:05 PM Central Daylight Time, I was getting near the end of an online conference with some classmates in Intro to Psychology. Then an aura started, and I swiped the magnet over my VNS. It got worse, so I swiped it again to reset the one minute of zap. I lost motor control, and I have reason to think I also lost my sense of touch, but my sense of vision was awake and recording to memory the whole time.

After the seizure was over and I regained motor control, I tried twice to write something like "Sorry, guys, I was having a seizure for the last few minutes, could you summarize for me what you discussed in the last few minutes?", but I wasn't able to get past the first five words either time, because I was having trouble connecting thoughts to words.

I called home on the Webcam a few minutes later, and managed to get the right words out to Mom and Dad, communicating what had happened. About an hour after the seizure started I called again, and had recovered my fluency.

The most likely cause for the seizure is that I only had about seven hours of sleep the night before. Last night I slept from about 10 to 8:30, so I am not afraid today (but I'm still being cautious!), and tonight I'll go to bed at about 9.

One positive thing I can think of about this is that I might be able to make a good presentation about it in Intro to Psychology, where we have just been studying what parts of the brain have what functions. I would find fun attaching each function I had trouble with to the part of my brain that was having trouble.

Delivered to Texas

Yesterday I left David in Longview, Texas. He is (sort of) settled into a dorm room on campus. We spent five days together going to all the orientation info sessions and visiting the school nurse, security, getting a local doctor, signing him up for classes--not too many and not too few, hopefully. Three trips to Walmart, one trip to Target, Office Depot, and Supercuts. The bank called this morning and said to stop.

Last month he had a second, minor seizure. He didn't lose consciousness which hasn't happened since when the epilepsy first appeared. But it was pretty depressing. We sorted things out and decided to try extra sleeping medicine in hopes that it would counteract any sleep disturbances from the VNS dose increases. We doubled his dose of Rozerem and he seems fine now.

David seems to be back to being stable. Moving away from home, with all the orientation running around craziness in 100 degree heat with stifling humidity, it seems like he would be at risk for at least one seizure, but he has been fine. He did have a day with several auras but that's it.

I kept asking if he didn't want to come back with me to keep me company on the way home, but he very sweetly said that though he would miss us, he was happy staying. He is very excited about his opportunity!!

Thank you for the prayers and support that have gotten him this far!

Still ok

David hasn't had any more trouble since Tuesday night.
He had a lot of freedom taking the bus to PCC for a math class--gone. Now I drive him till we understand how likely it is he will have seizures.
We also are going to work to get him more resilient, which may take a while.
I am soooo glad this happened now and not two months from now when he would have been living in a dorm 2000 miles away! God's mercy.

My Jaw Won't Shut (Figuratively)

On Sunday, I overexerted myself, and had the ~50th aura since the surgery.

On Monday and Tuesday, I forgot my morning doses of medecine, as I had many times before.

Tuesday morning I also had an aura that lasted 30 - 60 seconds while I was in class at Pasadena City College. (Taking Calculus 2, if you're curious).

Then, Tuesday evening, as Dad was helping me with choosing what classes to take at LeTourneau University, I had a long bad aura, and as I found out two days later, it was followed by a big, bad seizure, which I do not remember.

It is hard to grasp the fact that after 11 months and one week with no seizures, I had another; this could mean working out my plans for college all over again.

However, the verse from Job has come to my mind, and I resolve to mean it:

"The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

All quiet today

David was tired but no seizures today. He stayed home from class and just felt crummy, napped, and did homework.

Bad news--the one I dread

David had a bad seizure tonight. He is fine now. But we are so disappointed. He had missed the last two morning doses of medicine and I guess his brain couldn't take that. Pray for healing from this monster. Thanks.

Tickets for Texas

About seven weeks till David leaves home and goes to Texas for school, if all goes well in the meantime. I bought plane tickets for August 19.

His status right now is that he has still had no seizures since last July 31. Eleven months! ("Normal" before that had been several days of seizures every month or so. That was with high doses of three medicines and the vagus nerve stimulator implant.) Things are a little different than several months ago since he asked for a lower setting of the VNS. In the fall and winter he missed several doses of his pills each week and felt no effects. Since the VNS dose was turned down, he now gets auras if he misses even one dose of pills. Having auras usually means he is getting vulnerable to having seizures.

Please pray that he will be stable so that he can go to this college that seems so ideal for him. And that he will be healed. We see Dr Maleeva on Friday July 31. It would be nice if we could get his VNS turned up higher again, but he in the past he has gotten insomnia from it, which triggered seizures, so it's not an easy question.

We are thinking of having a One Year Celebration on Saturday August 1 so please check back soon.

Thanks for the support and prayers. God has been Good!!

No news is good news

David has now gone 303 days with no seizures.

Last year at this time he was in the hospital with the probes in, waiting for the third seizure. I was hoping that he would get out in time for graduation night. As we go through this time of year again it's reminding me of all the events of last year really vividly. It was all so intense I feel like I'm just starting to get some perspective. It was hard to go through the surgeries and I'm realizing it was hard to have epilepsy for so long.

Thanks for going through this with us.

David is still planning to leave in August to go to Longview, Texas for college. He has had a roommate chosen for him, a boy from Pennsylvania. I get to fly out with him to get him settled...then leave him there!?!

Some Changes

We just finished (or maybe I should say started!) moving into another house. We were deeply in love with our previous house - after staying five years and all* - but Mom and Dad figured that they would be able to give me and my siblings more financial assistance in college if we downsized. 

Funny thing is, we've upsized for the next six months, inhabiting our first two-story house! By the time this lease is over, we will have gotten rid of enough clutter to downsize, and buy a smaller house. (And it will be closer to the time the market will bottom out, too! More bang for fewer bucks.)

Oh, and by the way, I will also have left the house by then. I am going to college starting in the coming Fall semester, and the choice is pretty much final that I will go to LeTourneau University, a Christian engineering school in Longview, Texas, near the Louisiana border.

Mom was originally encouraging me and Dad to go and visit LeTourneau, but then while we were away for three days she got very lonely for me, and did not want me to go there for school.

It took me a long time to make the decision to go to LeTourneau and not Biola, but after I had decided to go to Biola if I was accepted into Torrey Honors Institute and then was disappointed when I heard that I was, I knew my heart wanted LeTourneau.

Mom was kinda unhappy when she heard that I had chosen LeTourneau, and tried to sob me out of it, but though I had sympathy for her, I knew my mind was made. She was consoled for a while after that when she decided to go with me for my first week of school, but today I heard clues that she is not even satisfied with that. I think she will be happy, though, if we can get stuff set up so that we can have weekly Webcam conversations.

It is so nice having such an affectionate Mom, and I don't want to waste the time I still have her (and Dad), so I will be eager to find out about affordable ways to set up a Webcam.

*By "all" I mostly meant the European Miele dishwasher we had in the other house - powerful to wash, and containing a third rack for utensils, so that the surfaces are not touching each other and obstructing the cleaning. *Sigh*. It's sad how it's hard to appreciate blessings until they're gone.

Two longests

Eight months since David's last seizure!!! Five years in one house!!!

We are about to turn over the house to buyers, so we'll have to start over there.

David learned today that he was accepted into the Torrey Honors program at Biola. We are very happy about that! He has been doing a great job of applying for some scholarships. The essays force him to think through aspects of his life and write about them in an interesting way, which is all rather challenging.

Tomorrow we see Dr. Maleeva to hear her opinion of David going to school out of state.

Eight months

We are almost to eight months!I almost lost count of months now that it's been quite a while.Our house is sold and we close in 11 days and move out in 14. (4/11)David is working on scholarship applications, which is challenging. He is a bit shy about "packaging" himself in essays.

A Near Miss, and a college class

Sunday night David had such a bad aura he thought it was going to turn into a seizure. It lasted a while and finally went away. It was heartbreaking. But he hasn't had any more since.

Two weeks ago we saw Dr Maleeva and he had her turn down the dose of his VNS as it felt a little irritating when it went on. So I blame the lower dose for this aura.

I could have blamed sleep deprivation but I don't. David enrolled at Glendale Community College and the only available section of the math class he wanted begins at 7:00 am. The rest of us have been in shock for the last couple weeks as he has gotten himself up, dressed and out the door at 6:15 every weekday morning. He walks down the hill one mile and catches the bus, then rides the bus back home after class and calls me for a ride back up the hill. He looks so happy to be "moving" -- independent, mobile, and back to doing math again. He is still working through the Foundations of American Thought class and making dinner for the family most nights.

A small Christian engineering/technical college called LeTourneau, in east Texas, accepted him and offered a generous scholarship. (We're not sure about sending him so far away, till we see some more stability re seizures.) He is also hoping to be accepted at Biola, and is applying for some scholarships. These things all have pushed him a lot but he is learning some new things and becoming more organized.

Speaking of moving, we found a buyer for our house and if all goes well we hope to find something in Pasadena or Altadena that is cheaper so we can free up some $ for college tuition.

Thanks for checking in. I'll try to post more often.

Getting moving

David's speech therapist back in August was a funny, loud man who said David needed to Get Moving! Well, David has visited two college campuses in the last few weeks, applied to two junior colleges to pick up classes before fall, worked on scholarships, and is motivated and happy! He also took the SAT and got a really high math score and did pretty well in the verbal too.

We are getting more and more accustomed to no seizures, and to his mind being clearer and clearer.

We have a Dr Maleeva appointment this Friday. Please pray for a good one. Thanks!!!

Six months!!

Six months, six months, six months, SIX MONTHS. It sounds so good. Six months ago today David was in the ICU with brain trauma from the grid that would have diagnosed the source of his epilepsy. Instead it caused swelling and nearly caused a coma. Now David has fully recovered and has had no seizures, anyway! Thank you God!! God has been so good to us!

Come Sunday

This Sunday we would like to offer chili and cake from 1pm to 3pm at our home to thank our friends who have prayed for David and given us moral support! He turned 20 last week, and is doing college applications and plans to live on campus starting this fall so there is a lot to celebrate!

Time 1-3 pm Sunday January 18, 2009
Address 2464 Upper Terrace, La Crescenta, 91214 http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=RNWK,RNWK:2006-06,RNWK:en&q=2464%20Upper%20Terrace%2C%20La%20crescenta%2C%20ca&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
Phone 818 249 2809

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, David! Now you are 20. You have made it through the teen years with grace. Nothing major to regret. Good job! Thank you, David. Thank you, God!

I haven't counted in a while but...it's now been 166 days with no seizures.

In a couple weeks David might be eligible for a driver's permit.

I could cry--these are all such happy things!

Life is good without seizures. For me it's like I was trapped underwater but now have bounced up to the surface. Bounce! Bounce! This is fun!