Some we win; Some we lose

We continue to battle to get Grace to eat. In true Grace fashion, she continues to change her tastes and appetite practically daily! There are some days that we are successful and we get her to eat all of her meals. There are a few days when we are overly successful and she actually eats more than her meals. Then there are the days when she will not eat all of her meals - skipping entire meals. We fight to make these type of days not outnumber the successful days.

We keep trying to change her menu plan so that she will not get tired of foods that are working. We have tried some of the great recipies folks have shared with us. We are on the lookout for new ideas and ways to get her to drink her heavy cream and to eat her food. When we can make the heavy cream part of the food that seems to work more often that not.

Grace is holding realtively steady at the 25 pound mark. We would like to see her put on a bit more weight but we are happy that she is not losing pounds. We weigh her each morning prior to breakfast. If we can;t have continual upward progress, at least it is only fluctuating by ounces rather than pounds!

Despite the battles and struggles, we see the benefits. Grace just hit the 50 day mark for being seizure free. This is tremendous for her. The last time she had a seizure break this long was over a year and a half ago! We listen to the stories of others whose children are on this diet and we are heartened by their successes as well. This diet really works! We have seen it work for Grace already. She deserves the chances that this diet will give her. For that, it is worth the fight. Grace is worth the fight!

I have been asked a lot recently about how the diet works. Basically, the idea behind the diet is that she will use fat as her energy source rather than carbohydrates. This is called ketosis. When this happens, her body produces a chemical that supresses the seizures. She gets so little carbs to keep her body deep in ketosis. This his how her body can produce enough of this special chemical. Grace takes supplements to help provide her body with the neutrients that she is no longer getting in her food. The diet is done under the care of a team of doctors, nurses and nutritionists to ensure that no long-term damage is being done to her.

I want to give a big thank you to WaWa. We got set up on the WaWa Heavy Cream Program. This means that once a week, we get two quarts of special WaWa Heavy Cream delivered to our local WaWa - free of charge! We just show up and ask for it and they just give it away! This is a great program. The hospital has a deal with WaWa to perform this service. WaWa donates the heavy cream to any child in their delivery area who gets referred by the hospital. It sure makes me feel good about all of the times I drop into WaWa for something!!