End of Summer Update

It has been a busy summer and, thus, I have not gotten around to posting.

The great news is that Soren is still doing really well on the diet. But, of course, there have been some bumps in the road.

June--Due to an ear infection, Soren had to be on 3 rounds of antibiotics. During this time I, somewhat foolishly, tried to continue to wean him off Depakote. It was down to 1 morning and 1 evening dose. I cut the morning dose during this whole antibiotic thing. Soren had a few strong seizures, so I assumed this was related to the Depakote and put the morning dose back.

However, at this same exact time, I started him on his 3rd antibiotic. The doctor who prescribed it was from an Urgent Care in Carpinteria. Super nice doctor, but I don't think he fully understood the Keto Diet (why would he?) and the antibiotic prescribed had too many Carbs in it! So, I took him off this as well.

Once I put the Depakote back and stopped the antibiotic, the seizures stopped. The question was, which of these was really affecting Soren?

July--We went to the neurologist and discovered the possible answer. Being on antibiotics can lower one's seizure threshold! So being on 3 rounds of antibiotics can REALLY lower one's seizure threshold. (not to mention that the ear infection itself lowers the seizure threshold)

Now that Soren was clear of his infection, she encouraged me to continue Soren's Depakote wean. So I eliminated the morning dose, and we didn't have any side effects. In fact, Soren didn't have any seizures in July!

August--I was now ready to drop out Soren's last evening dose of Depakote. His doctor advised me to give him half for a couple weeks before cutting it out completely. She warned me that Soren may have withdrawal seizures at this point. And, sure enough, I started the wean on Sunday and he had 2 big seizures this week. Poor guy!

The other thing I had to do this month was get Soren's blood drawn so they could check how things are going on since he's been on the Keto Diet.

One benefit of the Keto Diet has been that Soren's had a lot more energy and "tells" us when he likes or doesn't like something.

The problem is, when he doesn't like something, he puts up quite a fuss! This makes drawing blood REALLY difficult. I mentioned this to his neurologist and she gave me the okay to give Soren some "relaxing medicine" to mellow him out. So I did that this morning and the blood draw went off without a hitch.

School starts on Monday and I think Soren's really going to be happy to be back. We're just not as fun and exciting as all his friends.

Amy