Keto Stories

Diana’s Story

Once while waiting in Diana’s neurologists’ office, we happened to look at a chart for epileptic drugs hanging on the wall. It soon struck us that Diana had been on about half the 25 drugs listed. Now only six and a half, her seizures started a little over three years ago. That’s an average of 4 different drugs per year. After her seizures began, mono therapy soon became five drugs. Still, she was having seizures – and developing new types that we had never heard of. Atonic. Myoclonic. We were losing her to the drugs, their side effects and the seizures. She often could not walk, eat or play, and was very agitated. Night time brought on the worst of the seizures and night terrors due to the drugs. There had to be something better we could do for Diana. Thankfully, there was. The Ketogenic Diet. To help even more, there were Jim Abrams and The Charlie Foundation, dedicated to helping children, like Diana, have a better life with epilepsy. The team at the Brain Mapping Center in Pasadena, CA: Ketogenic Dietician, Danine Hayes, and doctors Huf, Maleeva and Sutherling and their staff have all been invaluable in helping us get Diana better. She really likes to eat her keto food, largely because of the time Danine spent on developing the best meal plans. Her teachers and others at her schools have also been very much a part of helping Diana get better and adhering to the diet. Diana started the diet on 9/11/06 and it has helped her tremendously. She was immediately weaned off of four drugs and became much healthier, happier and alert. Her seizures – and seizure types have greatly diminished due to the diet. It has certainly helped her more than any drug on that chart. We’ll take those side effects any day.