Let Your Life So Shine

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet, Uncategorized by ten40s

I “met” Natalie on Facebook when we were just starting our seizure journey last year. Natalie is the mother of Gianna, a stunningly beautiful, brown-eyed 8-year-old girl who has more challenges than I can even name. I broke out crying the first time I watched a video of Gianna that her mom had shared. I cried because of the incredible grace of this mother…never giving up….always encouraging her daughter to press on. She has given her life to searching for answers to help her daughter ….and along the way she helps all of us. Her life is like a stalworth, beaming lighthouse for others to catch a glimpse of… on the murky waters trying to find their way in the storms and fog….and it keeps shining.

One day Natalie posted that someone had watched one of her videos of Gianna and left the following comment;

“Why don’t you just kill her, and save the government money.”

Shock…Horror…What? …Really?!!!!

It literally took my breath away when I read it.

So what does Natalie do? She keeps going. She is not existing. She is living – living perhaps more “lively” than many who have none of these challenges and are just merely existing in their own self-centered world.

We need to get beyond ourselves. “Whoever loses his life shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25)

To the Natalies’ of this world…faithfully serving the beautiful Giannas’ of this world… I salute you…and am indebted to you. Thank you for giving us a stunning example of grace. For those of us who have the ability or resources….let us take the example set before us…find someone whose load we can lighten…today…and everyday.

“Let your life so shine” Matthew 5:16

Living – not just exisiting – another reason for KetoJoy!

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet by ten40s

There is not much living you can do when your child is dropping to the floor up to 80 – 100 times a day. Even when Autumn first started having seizures and was “only” having 1 or 2 an hour, someone always had to be with her for fear of injury. She had to be very careful as to what activities she did. She could have never done what she did today – making candles with hot beeswax sitting in boiling water! 🙂

Autumn chose to wrap her candle in purple ribbon for Epilepsy Awareness Month and green buttons to represent The Charlie Foundation.

The diet that many doctors and patients think is such a burden…brings to us such a blessing…allowing us to live again…and not just exist…that is Ketojoy!

Consider it all Joy

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet by ten40s

Although we started this blog several days ago by putting up recipes and resources, it hasn’t been “live” until today , so, live post #1 🙂

It is Epilepsy awareness month and I find some of the statistics I am reading just staggering. In all of this, I am reminded where we were a little over 17 months ago…in a hospital room where drug after drug wasn’t working and every few minutes the seizures raged on. I had a friend call me in the midst of it all and say, “Just remember that today is not the way it is always going to be.” I hung unto those words knowing that time has a way of working things out – in one way or another. And I, and my husband and kids, just kept doing the next right thing in front of us. I think of the 2 moms in the video – Tresa and Kate – where they once were and where they are today – with the success of their kids, and how much more they know since that “one day” when their worlds were shattered. We all have seen examples of this in our lives and those around us. Thus, I am reminded of the verse in James 1 that says: ”Consider it all joy my brethren, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the trying of you faith produces patience, and let patience have its perfect work in you, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Looking for joy? Look to those trials that are perfecting you, as you patiently walk through it, day by day. 😉

WELCOME!

Posted in Ketogenic Diet by ten40s

Welcome! We started “Keto Joy!” (2013) as a way to get the encouraging word out on the Ketogenic Diet for the treatment of Epilepsy. The best place to start is to watch the above short video; it tells Autumn Joy’s entire seizure story, and gives you a great start to “Keto Joy!” SECONDLY, go straight over to the RESOURCES page – that will probably answer most of your questions! Our goal is to encourage people to see the diet as a joy and blessing rather than a burden.

Our family would like to help encourage anyone who may be struggling with the ravages of seizures and considering the diet. Thus far, due to the diet, we have had a very short seizure story; perhaps it will help others have a “short story” as well. We will be posting recipes, resources and links that may help in guiding you to find answers.

We don’t have all the answers and we don’t know yet how our “keto story” will end, however for now, we are so thankful that “Morning has broken into a seizure free year…and counting!”

Update July 2014: After once having up to 100 seizures a day, Autumn has now been seizure-free for over 2 years! We have begun to wean Autumn off the diet, and although she is not totally off yet, so far so good. Earlier posts will have more 3:1 ratios or higher. More recent posts are more “low carb.”

Update October 2014: Autumn has been completely off the diet since July. She recently had an EEG where the results showed all of her brain activity was completely normal. That is the result of KETO JOY! Be encouraged and keep holding fast!

Update April 15, 2017: Autumn has been off the diet for almost 5 years and remains seizure free! Keto Joy! I am hoping to launch a new forum called FORTIFY in the next month or so to talk about all the ways you can fortify your health. After 55 years of living and 8 kids that keep telling me to “write all that stuff down, mom”, I hope to get started!

Update April 3, 2023 We have had to change the name of the website address from KETOJOY.COM to KETOSEIZUREFREEJOY.COM because I never applied for a copyright on the name, and someone else did…so I had to change it. Hopefully all the links on the site will still work! In addition, you can check out ketojoy.com as they sell keto products that may be helpful on the diet – however I don’t think they existed when we were on the diet, so I do not have much infomation on the items they sell.