National Epilepsy Awareness Day

March 26th is National Epilepsy Awareness Day, also known as "Purple Day." There are many events going on across the nation to raise funding for children with epilepsy. There is currently nothing going on locally, but one day, Chris and I would like to change that. Maybe have a walk in Marion or something similar. We know how hard it is finding funding for families with epilepsy and would like to contribute to that fund in some way.

Cutter has been through a lot in the past year, but he has come so far. This time last year he was having 25 seizures a day, couldn't even hold his head up, and he just laid around. It was pitiful. Now, he is very active, gets into everything, and can totally light up a room.

However, Cutter is still having seizures and this has been a rough week for us. One of his seizures lasted over seven minutes, and that was the longest seven minutes of my life. But when he finally snapped out of it he played and laughed, and it was like nothing had ever happened! Thank God for moments like that. He gives us what we need exactly when we need it.

They have upped Cutter's meds again to see if it will control his seizures this time. They didn't want to up it but he has done so well on Zonegran they felt like he would do fine. However, if we start to see any side effects we can always drop him back down. So far, he has done well and hasn't had a seizure since Monday.

Once again, we thank you so much for your prayers and support. Our little boy is loved by many people, and we are so very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

Enjoy this spring weather!

Chapel Hill Update

Hello,

We went to Chapel Hill last Tuesday to see Cutter's neurologist down there. His name is Dr. Greenwood. It has taken almost one year to get an appointment with him! We actually didn't even get an appt. with him. We saw a Nurse Practitioner and Dr. Greenwood stopped by to see Cutter. We were at the hospital for FOUR hours. We left very discouraged, but it will be okay! Dr. Greenwood told us that he is very disappointed that Cutter is still having seizures. He expected that by this point he would have completely stopped. He was very happy with Cutter's development, but he was very worried about the future and Cutter's development if the seizures continue. He wanted to change his medication to Carbamezapine. He told us that he would be in contact with Dr. Huffstutter about what to do. We left discouraged because we think that Cutter is doing great, especially if you look back to where we were one year ago. However, we do understand that Cutter's development will suffer the longer he continues to have seizures.

We talked to Dr. Huffstutter the next day, and he told us that he agreed with Dr. Greenwood, and that maybe changing Cutter's medicine would do him some good. However, the longer we talked about Cutter's past and the past medications he has been on it dawned on him that Cutter has been on Trileptal before. Apparently Tripleptal is very similiar in makeup to Carbamezapine. Since the Trileptal did not work before Dr. Huffstutter was not sure that he should be put on this other medicine. After talking with Dr. Greenwood the next day they both decided against changing the medication. So, for right now, we are doing nothing.

We love having a Christian doctor working with Cutter. Dr. Huffstutter told us that we would just pray about the situation and what to do next if Cutter keeps having seizures. And we know how far prayers go! God is great, and He will not fail us. We just have to trust in Him!

Thank you for your continued support! We will update you soon!