Day 1 of the ketogenic diet

Today was the big day- Day 1 of the ketogenic diet!  We are excited, overwhelmed, nervous, grateful and hopeful that this diet will be the answer to all of our prayers.  Before we get into everything with Stephen, Lily Gray is having an adventure of her own this week.  Lily Gray went to spend the week up in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the Clarke family, yesterday Julie and Lily Gray headed up there and today was Lily Gray's first day of tennis camp in the mountains.   

Here is Lily Gray and Emma Kate with their tennis instructors.

They also headed down to a lake today and saw these sweet baby swans with their mother.

And of course a Blue Ridge must is Kiliwins Ice Cream- YUM!! I hope you girls had a scoop for us! :)

Lily Gray we miss you terribly and are so happy that you are having such a great time, you haven't missed much being gone, this is what we did today....

When we got the call mid-morning that a bed was ready for us we packed up and headed straight to Duke. Stephen was just as excited as we were to start this whole process. 

Once we got to Duke and got settled in, we had a fairly quite afternoon.  We have the most wonderful team of doctors looking over us, who have checked in on us multiple times already (I know!!) We spent most of the afternoon watching TV and playing games on the Ipad. 

This is Stephen's favorite game! 

Once dinner time rolled around that is when all the action started, the dietitian came in to get us started on the diet, the IV team came in to put Stephen's IV in, and they came to collect blood all at the same time. There definitely isn't enough room for everyone in our tiny hospital room.  We got an IV in and blood drawn quick and easy, thanks to the peds IV team!  Tonight for dinner we had applesauce and bologna (for the first time). He did great with his first "ketogenic" meal!  We have started tracking his blood levels, every four hours, we get a lovely finger prick, along with giving Stephen 240 cc of water every 4 hours.  He seems to be tolerating everything great so far, we are looking forward to a peaceful night in the hospital (HA, is there such a thing?!?)

We wanted to say a very special thank you to whoever left us the yummy chicken, mushroom and pasta meal along with the beautiful gladiolus!   Thank you thank you thank you whoever you are!