One year ago today, Jade had her first seizure. It’s hard to believe we’ve already been living with this Epilepsy Beast for a year. It’s not fun to remember that day (and oh, how innocent I was, not even knowing what EEG stood for!) and we’re not really out of the woods yet, but at least we’ve found a way to fight back. I pray that in two years, we’ll remember this date and think, “Thank God it’s over!” Or even forget about it entirely.
We had a nice day together as a family. Michael is off to Ross River tomorrow, so we made the best of the beautiful weather and went out to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve for a walk around the loop. The animals were putting on a show for us today — we got to see the Dall sheep up close, and the moose, elk, mountain goats, muskox (including three babies!), bison (with a very protective momma), and caribou all obliged us with an appearance. We were at the Preserve on Mother’s Day and just had to laugh when we got into the car because we’d all had such a terrible time with two tired and cranky crying kids. This time, we got smart and brought our double jogging stroller along, which made for a really enoyable outing.
I also spent the evening doing something I love to do: singing. My Toastmaster’s club helped to organize a leadership conference and asked me to provide entertainment during cocktails and dinner for the banquet. I recruited local piano whiz Marg Tatum to accompany me and we had a lot of fun playing some good ol’ jazz standards, show tunes, and other familiar songs for a little over an hour. I’ve never performed for an hour straight and I definitely found the limits of my voice (owie) but it was great to get out and sing. Marg and I are planning to get together in future and build up a repertoire so that we can do other gigs, something I’m quite excited about.
On top of all that, Michael got both kids fed and into bed himself with minimal crying and fuss. I got home right after, so I know it’s true. I’m so impressed. Also, I’m totally going out for the evening again sometime soon. Partly because it’s awesome to know that I can go out and do stuff. And partly because he SO got lucky.
Overall, I think we did a pretty good job of creating some new good memories for this day. The beast is not going to win.
glad to hear you all had a good time and happy! Love you all.
It’s certainly been a horrible year, and I’m sure the worst is over!!!!! It’s all uphill from now on. The diet…and all your efforts…will slay the beast!
Glad you had a good day.
Love, Marian
It must have been a “family day” in Whitehorse today! We headed over the pass to Skagway, and relaxed, enjoyed the sun, and basically recharged.
Glad to hear you had fun, and are ready to go out AGAIN!!!!
Between you and Michael, and ALL that you both do, I’m sure you are creating some wonderful memories every day.
I bet when Jade and Halia get older, they will have so many moments when they will think back to their childhood and laugh at all they’ve been through with mom and dad.
Singing and cooking and writing poetry and plays and being out in nature with all those wonderful animals:)
Hey Fawn,
Sounds like you had an awesome day. I’m sure the beast will be a memory soon, and I vote for not even remembering it.
Let me know when you’ll be singing gigs in Vancouver!
Reading your life makes me happy, too. Thank you.
Hey I was in Toastmasters too!!
Back when I was in undergrad though. Glad to hear you still have the passion for public speaking!! 
We are so happy to know that Jade is doing so well. (Evan is also “99.something%” seizure-free.) You know….with all these kids have been through and have had to overcome (seizures, keto diet, hunger, etc.) they will surely “go places” in life. They have already had more challenges than most people experience in their lifetime.
A note about the keto. We would fast Evan for a day every now and then, as needed, just like you are beginning to do. However, his body became very lean on the diet, and he started responding negatively with the fasting. We think that instead of breaking down additional body fat during the fast, he was breaking down protein. We stopped doing the fasts at that point until we slowly increased his calories.
Hope you’re enjoying your summer. It’s HOT down here!!!