Half a year in...

Gracie has now been following the ketogenic diet for just over six months. It has it's challenges but the benefits are definately outweighing the negatives. The biggest benefit is that we are well over the 4 month mark os being seizure-free. Grace just sat here and sang me a song she made up about her daycare friends. It was so amazing and so sweet. The longer she goes without seizures, the better her long-term prognosis is.

Gracie is getting more clever about trying to scam food off of people. Her most amazing ally is her sister. It's bad when Gracie begs for something and then Rita also starts asking if she can have a little bite of whatever it is she wants. Rita has a lot of empathy for Gracie. Rita often comments how great it will be when Gracie can be off of this diet. At times Rita actually feels bad for being able to have something the her sister can not eat. It is a reminder that Rita is on this journey with the rest of us.

Gracie has put on a little bit of weight. She hit 29 pounds on the scale the other day. She is still not close to he 31 pounds she weighed when the diet started in January. She continues to grow and many of the other side effects seem to be resolving. Her hair stopped falling out like it was. Her hir color is much more brown than black. The doctor commented on her hair color on our last visit. I hadn't noticed it much. However, I did really notice the brown color when she was with all of her 'Chinese friends' (her travel group).

We make the choice to stick to this diet over and over. There are times we are tempted to let Gracie slide off of this diet. That temptation gets quelled by the little things - seeing one of our local ambulances and not knowing the paramedics! For a while we were seeing them so often, we knew all of them. We have not seen our friends at the St. Mary Medical Center ER since March! There were times we were seeing them weekly. We keep up with the diet because in the long run, Grace is better off for it.