Update on the Last Year and a Half (Part 1)

No posts generally means either things are going well, or the author is lazy/absent minded about the blog.
There's been a combination of the two, but I shouldn't leave you all in the dark about what's been happening.

Nearly a year ago, in the summer of 2012, I started the Ketogenic Diet, a diet with high fat, low carbs and low protein - especially low carbs.
Similar to the Atkins Diet, it puts the body in a mode of running on fat, rather than using sugar as the main fuel. This is called a state of ketosis.
The diet requires high precision, as the wrong number of calories, the wrong ratio of fat to (protein + carbs), and simply too many carbs within the right ratio will change the depth of ketosis.

I've known that this diet exists for many years, but it took until after many medicines had been tried and surgery had been tried for me to choose it.
Why? The ketogenic diet is generally described as healing within about 2 years; I wanted instant healing.
So, it took until many medicines had been tried and found insufficient, surgery had been tried and failed and one or two more medicines had also proved not good enough for me to look at the diet.

Then, in late July 2012, I started the diet, and a period of about 7 weeks with no seizures and no auras began - a wonderful beginning.
With great help from Mom, I built up a database of ingredients, with all their nutrition facts regarding fat, protein, carbs and calories, as well as recipes that conformed to the rules.
Having experience cooking for the whole family in the past, I was soon able to transfer from cooking some meals myself and having other meals cooked by Mom to cooking each and every meal on my own.
(But I'm still to this day refining my ability to write things I'll need soon on the shopping list soon enough in advance of running out...)

(In order to keep the post length reasonable, I'll leave it hanging here. Check back in a day or two.)

More Change, But Doing Well

For the nearly-a-week since my last seizure, my sleep pattern has changed.
Instead of waking at 6:45 to my alarm, and either vegging for half an hour before taking a shower or sleeping in until 8, I now am waking up a 5:30 sharp, with no alarm, rather alert.

Yesterday evening I missed my evening medicine for the first time in years - not only forgetting to take it at the scheduled time, but not even remembering it at midnight when I can't get to sleep. I got to sleep about midnight, and woke up at 5:30 as now usual.

I had a couple of auras, one somewhat alarming, but neither feeling like a certain seizure, and neither becoming one.

Frequency, Phase Changing

I've had a few weeks with no seizures, but now, I've had another.
I had a couple nights staying up later than usual, and today I had a couple of auras that Jon was able to dismiss.
However, I didn't take Ativan, and I spent about an hour on Facebook.

Reason?

Just an hour ago, I had a seizure.
It is strange, that the most common times for me to have seizures seem to have moved from the end of the week to the beginning of the week.
I can't figure out what was the cause.
Maybe less sleep than ideal.

At Last. *sigh*

The fever is gone from my cold, and the congestion is going away. I'm able to breathe through my nose, and only have to blow it once in a while.

However, last night I had a seizure at 11 PM. I had been in bed

* Sorry, the post above was cut off by another seizure, at around 11 AM.
But there is still improvement to be observed!
Whereas having seizures would hit my head hard, making it difficult to do homework after a cluster half a year ago, I am now feeling almost like there was no seizure. Full recovery, in only a few hours!

Thank you for your prayers!
Please continue, and don't forget to thank God for the improvements!

Hooray! A Cold!

Huh?

I have a rhino virus, a cold that really hits the nose hard, making it difficult to breath except through the mouth with all the congestion.

After starting the new medicine Vimpat (see previous post or two), this is at least the second cold I've had with no seizures. Unprecedented!

By the way, tomorrow's my birthday.
It would be a wonderful gift from God if tomorrow morning I wake up with no cold, having had no seizures!
But then, God knows much better than I do what makes a gift good.
It's at least a great gift to have no seizures during a cold!

Update on Monday

Yesterday morning I ate a slice of chocolate chip bread, and the theobromine (a chemical very similar to caffeine, but not identical) got to my head within an hour and I had a seizure after about three months of peace. (For more about chocolate and caffeine, read http://www.xocoatl.org/caffeine.htm)

I had a total of four seizures yesterday, and I took some extra medicine.

According to earlier plans, Saturday evening's medicine contained the last half-pill of Trileptal for me. Getting off of that medicine without having any seizures in the process had some part in tempting me to overestimate my stability. After having seizures, I took a half-pill, some extra of the new medicine that is replacing it - Vimpat - and some Ativan, which is most usually used in a pragmatic manner.

The four seizures were separated by intervals of about 2 or 3 hours. After dinner I had the fourth and last, and my mind slowed noticeably after it.

Today I have felt much better. My mind is clear, and though I have had some feelings similar to auras (an experience that always precedes a seizure, for me, lasting about 30 seconds before I either it ends and I'm fine or I lose muscle control and consciousness), I don't think any real auras have started.

It is very nice that I have my brothers with me. This summer, I figured out that hearing humor could help stop seizures when I feel an aura. I told Johnny and Mikey about it, and several times, I went to them and said "I'm having an aura," and they immediately did and said funny things. My guess is that the humor distracts me from the stress of soon having a seizure, and stress increases the probability of a seizure coming on.

My last aura this summer was chased away when I told Johnny, "I'm having an aura," and he responded in an artificial irate voice, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (See Genesis 4:9). He followed that up with, "Don't answer that." It set me off laughing then, and every time I remember it.