Sara, Ethan's Mom

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Do you ever have those moments where you suddenly stop,look around and say, "How did I get here?" That was me last week folding laundry. It's like you live your life and then it hits you--what your life really is! It's so surreal that Gracie is graduating from NIU in May. Ella is picking out a hairstyle to match her dress for her junior prom and Ethan is SO pumped up for baseball to start. What is even more amazing is that for the first time in a long time that is really what our life is about.

When Ethan was diagnosed with Epilepsy it swallowed our WHOLE family and it took a long time to feel like we could take a deep breath again. Well, we made it! Purple Day for us last year was so exciting. It was such a great way to feel connected as a family to something so important to us.

Volunteering has been a part of our house since the kids were small. There is no lesson more valuable than to give and not receive. To spread the word about Purple Day, we decided to make it part of our Christmas card last year. Turns out our family and friends weren't the only ones who loved the picture of the kids in their Purple Day shirts, because that very photo was selected for the Purple Day 2010 poster! To say a picture is worth a thousand words is an understatement. With that quick photo, taken by our neighbor, we have been able to speak hundreds of thousands of words about Epilepsy. It has given our family, and especially Ethan, the opportunity to be heard in ways we never thought possible...uh..like this blog for example!

Ethan has been off medication for 35 days now.

"So how are things at your house?" It's a simple question, right? Well, our family has taken a complicated road but we now have a really simple answer......Things are great!

Purple Day is March 26th - Wear your purple to support epilepsy awareness globally. Visit www.purpleday.org.

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March 23, 2010
Note: This Perspectives Blog post is written by a Guest Blogger of DrGreene.com and is provided in order to offer a variety of thoughtful points of view. The opinions expressed on this Perspectives Blog post do not reflect the opinions of Dr. Greene or DrGreene.com. As such, Dr. Greene and DrGreene.com are not responsible for the accuracy of the information supplied. This post is used under Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0.
 
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Comments

MsGreene

Congrats!

35 days off meds is awesome! How did you do it? What signs are you looking for to make sure it's working?

Reply

The Wybourn Family's picture
The Wybourn Family

Ethan's Dad here. Ethans

Ethan's Dad here.
Ethans seizures only occur at night, about 30 minutes after he has fallen asleep. He has been seizure free for over 400 days and 36 days without meds. He consumes no aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. He also has benign tic disorder and if he has anything with red 40 in it he starts to tic really bad. Sniffing, eye movement, wrinkling his face. His seizures were also cyclical. Except for the first one he ever had on March 26th, 2007 he has had the other 11 in the months of Aug-Sept and Dec-Jan. With his diary we somewhat linked his clusters with the amount of gatorade and other sport drinks he would have consumed during baseball and basketball seasons. It was just a hunch but seems to be working. Along with his B vitamins and fish oil.