31

Eventually I am going to stop with this silly number thing, but I couldn't possibly when you hear what 31 means now....

Let me give you a bit of recent history. As most of you know Josie has her fair share of bouts with seizures. For the past year there has been a definite increase in her focal seizures (no grand mals to report since April 2, 2007). However, she has been through 5 meds so far and seems to always get her seizures back. The most effective med has been Carbitrol and it was only effective for a year. She started having her seizures on this so Dr. Mitchell has been trying to add cocktails so that we can beat these things. FYI. really hard to learn to walk when all of a sudden your body freezes and/or knees buckle, etc. I won't bore you with too many details, but last May she was admitted to CHLA to do a 4 1/2 day study to video EEG to capture these episodes because we are all at a loss of what to do. Outcome was that she should probably try a new med and other options are the brain surgery that removes the effective spot. She is definitely NOT a candidate for this because you have to do so many invasive brain surgery mappings and since her blood vessels are going every which way from being rerouted during separation this could be a fatal option and one we aren't even exploring. So over the summer and leading up to now she is on Carbitrol (still) and Lamictil except that she is on a very low dose of Lamictil because every time we try to increase it she seizes harder, longer and more frequently (great option right?!?!..Argh.) Over summer and fall she has about 25 - 40seizures a day. Way to many. About 6 weeks ago I was thinking I should really start my search around the country for the top epilepsy specialist and start a new adventure with this. At the same time I finally got around to putting her on Omega (fish Oil). Embarrassing to work for Amerisciences, specializing in scientific based supplements with the purest form of Omega on the market, and I hadn't even put my brain injured daughter on it (tad to much going on all at once). Within the first couple of days taking Omega her speech cleared up and words came out faster, our friends here even commented it was so profound, she could concentrate so much better at school and actually started reading (what a struggle it had been before that), she is singing most of the lyrics to songs not just the last word in every phrase and what I am most excited about...drum roll please...SHE HAS BEEN SEIZURE FREE FOR 31 DAYS... can you hear me shouting it from the mountain tops... SHE IS 31 DAYS SEIZURE FREE!!! God Bless OMEGA!

Simple, pure fish oil has changed her life. The scariest part is not one western medical doctor has even suggested using it, not just for seizures, but even for helping heal the brain. It will be my mission to let people know the profound effects that Omega can have. Not Omega from Trader Joes or Costco, but real, manufactured perfectly (very hard to find) fish oil. Amerisciences fish oil. Josie even feels better you can tell. She was sitting on the edge of the bed last week and I ran into the other room for something and yelled back at her to be careful and don't fall. She yelled back, "Don't worry I won't, I don't have seizures anymore."

Part of me is really scared to brag about this yet. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I said if we made it 30 days I would start talking about it. I told our holistic doctor about it on Thursday and she concurred that I was giving her the proper dose and we will see her as soon as we get back. I have started to ween her off the Lamictil (never did anything anyway) and keep her on the Carbitrol for now. I pray that this keeps working. It is such a miracle in our lives, another one. I know we just had a few days with no posts so update, she is great. I think this should do it for tonight. Off to bed so we can get through day 32...wow does that sound great. Keep those prayers going. Jenny and seizure free, Josie