Things are great!

I just checked my medicine dispenser, and found that I didn't take my medicine this morning. I promptly proceeded to take the morning dose, and was pushed to make another post.

I have not only had no seizures these past weeks, but even no auras! (Hints of seizures)

Thank you all for your prayers, and God bless you!

A Great First Week

A week and a half of preparation plus a week of classes is now over, and in the 15 days in Texas, I have had no seizures!
I stopped trying the Atkins diet shortly after making the last post, as the fatigue was getting worse and it looked like any care I would need to take to maintain both the diet and energy would be more than I could manage.

I'm starting to think I see a picture in the past events.
Many years ago, I lost faith in medications to completely prevent seizures, after trying several combinations and still having regular seizures. My hopes turned to brain surgery.
Two years ago, my hope in brain surgery was challenged, but not shattered.
This summer, my hope in surgery was further challenged, while my faith in God's omnipotence was raised as we prayed that God might miraculously heal me.
My faith in God's power was questioned, but not damaged, when I had seizures after prayer for healing.
Now I am doing very well on a new arrangement of meds, and I am thinking that that might be God's ultimate plan of healing - through the first means that I lost faith in.

Praise the Lord, who works in mighty and mysterious ways!

Beginning Atkins

At dinner yesterday, I began seriously trying to follow the Atkins diet, and have continued since then.

This afternoon, I felt very tired - undoubtedly due to a shortage of sugar in my blood.

I have four prayer requests concerning the Atkins diet:

1) That I will be able to correctly follow it, and not accidentally consume carbs.

2) That it will work, and help reduce or even totally prevent seizures.

3) That the fatigue will not continue, but that my body will learn to burn fat quickly.

4) That I will know quickly whether it is God's will for me to do the diet, the three requests above assuming that it is.

Thank you very much for your prayers; I can tell that God is blessing me.

Veggies!!!

One plan to reduce my seizures is to try the Atkins diet.
The crux of the idea is to virtually eliminate all carbohydrates from my diet, and run on fat.
When a person is running on fat, they enter a state called ketosis, and some aspect of ketosis seems to reduce an epileptic's tendency to seize.

Wondering about the title?
Mom just stopped a gluten-free diet after four weeks, and told me that while she was on it, she had an unusual taste for vegetables.

So, I'm soon going to try and eliminate bread, hamburger buns, pizza crusts, potatoes, candy, soda, fruit and anything else that has sugar and/or starch from my diet.

One nice thing about the diet is that I'm gonna be eating lots of MEAT, and FAT. And I guess I might also start liking veggies, like Mom did.

Catch up

Sorry, blog followers, for the gap of posts.

I can't believe it. Just 6 days till I'm back in Texas, preparing for Fall '10 at LeTourneau University!

Monday through Thursday this week, we (Nemati family) went on a vacation to Morro Bay. There was much fun, especially on Tuesday, when we rented some kayaks for a couple hours.

Every silver lining has a cloud, though. I caught a small cold after swimming and not having anywhere warm to go. On Thursday, as we drove home, I had three seizures. (The first was at 11 AM, the second was at 3 PM, and the third 7 PM.)

I am relieved to hear that the post-ictals of those seizures were not nearly as bad as the two I had in the presence of friends from church. It sounds like I stayed seated, did some weird things, but nothing more dangerous than hitting my head on my knees. (And Dad stuck his hand in the way to cushion that!)

This blog does not yet contain the full story of an amazing answer to prayer. In Surgery Postponed, the surgeon's call came the morning after we watched Finger of God, a documentary about how God is doing miracles everywhere, everyday, and, inspired to have faith in God's power to do things in any way, we prayed that if surgery was not God's plan, the doctors, the surgeon, would cancel of their own accord. The next morning, the surgeon called, and we were told they wanted to postpone it.

That call was obviously an answer to prayer, but from the beginning it was clear that it was not clear exactly what the answer meant. We asked for a cancellation, and got a postponement. At first we thought the postponement might could the same as a cancellation, and that I might be miraculously healed. However, the seizure reported on June 28 dashed that hope - at least of an immediate healing.

I still have hope that God will relieve me of this trial, and in the meantime I am learning from it. Over this summer, we have been reading A Praying Life, and it has strengthened - or perhaps begun - my life of prayer. Also wonderfully helpful have been Pastor Ron Boomsma's sermons on the book of James - especially Aug 1's, "Conflicts." I have been trying to exercise that sermon, and make it a habit, and hopefully I will do well enough to get along well with Sam in a couple weeks.

By the way, my brother Sam is going to LeTourneau University with me this year, and he's going to be my roommate!