The most recent eeg

About a month ago now we went for a follow up EEG after initiating the ketogenic diet. The technician put all the gooey leads to Ava's head (we joked that all the neuro kids were sporting this spikey hair gel look). This time Ava reached up to twirl and play with her hair and we had to keep her hands to her side or risk the leads being pulled out. The last EEG that we went to had a look of a child's very messy drawings it scribbled in every direction and was as close to being hypsarythmia without actually being it. This time when the EEG readings began to run through it was this neat little scribble, more of a librarians writing than an excitable toddler's.
About halfway through the technician started going through her notes, comparing the last one with this one. "When was it that she started this diet again," she whispered. "And you say she isn't on any medication?" I told her it had been exactly three months and she said that was incredible. At the end of the reading, they did the photo stimulation which elicited jerk after jerk as the strobe lights flashed. "That is enough of that," said the technician. The technician told us that she couldn't let us know what was read but I could tell the differences on the eeg without training. Anyone could. "I am really excited about this," she said. It turns out that Ava had only one seizure on the eeg in an hour except for the end photo stimulation which caused many. We will have to be careful taking photos of her that the flash is off.

I am very happy that the diet is working to control about 95 per cent of her seizures. Only 30 per cent of children gain this. I am not satisfied though and am hoping that we can completely get rid of them. I mean, who can be truly happy that their child has a seizure an hour? Give or take. This is a really good start though and at least with most of the seizures out of the way and no drugs we know what we are working with and what is Ava.