Tag Archives: Joy

The Results Are In.

Posted in Ketogenic Diet by

Autumn’s last EEG back in February of this year, while she was still on the diet, did not include all the elements that are used to trigger seizures – yesterday’s EEG did. This included flashing strobe lights, inducing breathing hyperventilation and sleep deprivation.  Our neurologist said she wanted to know – and that we would want to know – for sure what these results would really show after 3 months off the diet.

My palms were sweating sitting next to Autumn watching the entire process.

Towards the end of the test, Dr. Kahn, our neurologist, peeked in to see how things were going and I stepped out to talk with her. We went into a room right next door to Autumn and she pulled up the the EEG results on the computer.  She brought up screen after screen of Autumn’s brain waves. As she is scrolling through the pages, I am imagining in my mind what all those lines might mean.  Then she utters these words:

“This looks great.” “Everything looks wonderful.” “Everything looks perfect.”

Tears well up in my eyes and I just look at her; an incredibly relieved smile overcomes my face.

My doubt disappears.

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Whenever you  hear that the diet is too hard…

remember this post…

remember this result….

and know that the results of the the ketogenic diet are pure

KETO JOY!!!!!!!!!

 

Oh, This is the Life!

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet by

What has the ketogenic diet allowed our family to do? Celebrate new life!   Autumn just became an aunt this past week!

Big Brother Kyle and wife Hope had our first grandchild – Maximus!

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They live in Colorado, and we live in Indiana but they wanted to have both moms out for the birth.  Because of the diet – and because Autumn can – at age 9 – manage the diet with just a little supervision, I was able to make the trip.

I was able to watch my first-born son behold his first-born son…

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And then it was my turn…

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Oh, this is the life! 

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At some point I need to get back to posting some more recipes….although looking at Max, it might have to wait till I get back home 😉 Keto Joy!

Welcome to Holland

Posted in Ketogenic Diet, Uncategorized by

For anyone reading this who may be in a different place in life than where you expected to be, you might enjoy the following poem/essay.  It was written in 1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley, about having a child with a disability, yet its message applies to “multitudes.”

“Welcome to Holland” 

When you are going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make all your wonderful plans: the Coliseum, Michelangelo’s David, the gondolas in Venice.  You may even learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands.  The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland ?!?”  you say.  “What do you mean Holland?  I signed up for Italy!  I’m supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy”

But there has been a change in the flight plan.  They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It’s just a different place.

So you go out and buy new guide books.  And you learn a whole new language.  And you meet a whole group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you’ve been there awhile and you catch your breath, you look around and begin to notice Holland has windmills- and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone one you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they are all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go.  That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, and very lovely things about Holland.

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BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!

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Living – not just exisiting – another reason for KetoJoy!

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet by

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! 🙂

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

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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!

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Consider it all Joy

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet by

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. 😉