My daughter is 18 weeks old. 18 years ago, I gave birth to her in the hospital by cesarean section due to fetal malposition. Then came the bad luck. On the third day of her life, the nurse took her to the bath, and the child suffocated, accompanied by emergency, transfer, critical illness and other memories that I don’t want to recall now. After all this, we took care of the child during the raising process, and fortunately everything was normal for the child’s development afterwards. When the nightmare felt like it had passed, misfortune struck again, early one morning at the age of 6, the child was still awake, and suddenly both eyes were rounded, accompanied by a grand mal seizure of the limbs, we were terrified and rushed to the hospital with the child in our arms. But I had a vague feeling of uneasiness in my heart, and I always had an ominous feeling. One morning, a few months later, another grand mal seizure appeared, and I discussed with my family that we must take the child to have a good look. After several EEGs, I took my child to the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, where he was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed Depakene for treatment. On the second day of taking the medication, my child’s legs stopped shaking and his physical condition improved. After three years, when the child was more than nine years old, he suddenly developed unconscious lip smacking and head spinning, sometimes accompanied by body spinning, which he did not pay much attention to at first, but later occurred several times in a row. After the age of 12, with the onset of the child’s physiological period, the seizure form kept changing, the number of seizures was gradually increasing, and her intelligence was regressing. When she was 14 years old, I found out that it was possible to remove the lesion through surgery and treat the epilepsy completely. So I took my child to Beijing Tiantan Hospital for a surgical evaluation, and after a series of tests, the final result was that she was not eligible for surgery due to multiple foci. Another blow hit us, leaving us at a loss for words. But seeing our child’s naivety still strengthened our determination to continue to seek medical treatment. Sick and desperate, she was like a guinea pig after that. We tried all the methods such as prescriptions, herbs and acupuncture that brought a glimmer of hope, but we also experienced the journey of hope – disappointment – despair again and again. When she was 17 years old, the seizures had become more and more frequent, with large and small seizures every day. The child’s eyes were dull, her movements were sluggish, and they turned into rigid seizures, sudden falls, convulsions, multiple bumps and traumas on her body, and several large bags on her head. Seeing the child like this, our family lived in pain every day, and for the sake of the child, I gave up the job I loved and resigned from the unit to focus on taking care of the child at home. But even so, accidents kept happening. During a bath, my child fell down and hit his head on the door frame, tearing his scalp and bleeding all over the floor. At this point I felt I couldn’t do this anymore and had to seek treatment. I posted online for help, and a doctor at Xi’an Tangdu Hospital replied to me, telling me to try a ketogenic diet. We had never heard of this therapy before, and after checking, we only had the Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Henan Province that had used this treatment, but it was limited to toddlers and children, with very little information about adult treatment. I wanted to find a hospital that was more mature in this treatment, so I went online and found out that Dr. Wang Man of Shanghai Deji Hospital was an expert in this area, and I read every article on the ketogenic diet in her blog several times, which also gave me some hope, so I hurried to consult with Dr. Wang on “”. She was very responsible and told us to do the “blood and urine tandem mass spectrometry” test locally before going for treatment, so that we could rule out any contraindications to this therapy and avoid running out of time. I would like to thank Dr. Wang for her excellent medical skills and her kindness and concern for her patients. After I sent her the test report, she saw no problem and booked us a specialist number with Prof. Guo Hui to diagnose first and then do the treatment. Thus, in November 2014, I brought my child to Shanghai Deji Hospital to embark on the road to ketogenesis. In fact, my family was very unsupportive before I went for treatment, and they did not believe that diet could cure the disease, because there was no other way, so I had to take a try. In addition, because of the previous herbal treatment, the child had been taking Depakene and Lamotrigine for four months, and this time Professor Guo Hui diagnosed us with full-blown idiopathic epilepsy, which is also a very serious one and very difficult to treat, and he adopted a drug plus ketogenic treatment plan, prescribing us magnesium valproate and clonazepam combined. The hospital is full of toddlers and children on ketogenic, and for children like us, we have heard from the internet before that ketogenic is not easy for older children, who like to steal food and cannot stick to it, so the results are not very good. Moreover, our child eats a lot and weighs 70 kg, so I don’t have confidence that we can stick to it. Dr. Wang gave us a modified ketogenic diet, Atkins ketogenic therapy, which is a 2:1 diet ratio of chikone milk and cookies. Because the child was fat, the blood ketones went up very slowly, but the second day of fasting during the day, the child surprisingly did not have any seizures or any discomfort, which gave me hope. Although it was not serious and lasted for a short period of time, such a form of seizure was never seen before and made me worried. The third day was the same, no seizures during the day and seven seizures in a series at night. On the fourth day, there were three seizures at night, and the fewer seizures each day, the more confident I was in the ketogenic diet. On the fifth day, when it was almost time to leave the hospital, the child was seizure-free for the whole day, and she was very well adjusted to this therapy, although she could not eat enough, she was very good and understanding, and Dr. Wang was encouraging her, telling her that she would be thinner, prettier and smarter. It was our first full day without seizures in almost two years, and something I’ve dreamed of for the past two years, so excited! When we were discharged from the hospital, Dr. Wang specially dispensed our meals and carefully taught me about calorie counting, ingredient selection, food weighing, blood ketone testing and other related knowledge, and also gave a detailed explanation of various precautions and left contact information to be in touch with any questions. Here I would like to talk about my feelings on the way. I was so scared on the train to Shanghai that I was afraid that my child would have a seizure and fall down, and I was also afraid of affecting others. On the way back, my heart was really relieved to know that my child would not have another seizure, so I breathed a sigh of relief and talked to the family members who were on the ketogenic diet about their experience with the ketogenic diet. The ketogenic milk, cookies and canned food that my child had been eating while in the hospital were getting a little tiresome. As soon as I got home, I followed Dr. Wang’s meal preparation for my child. It is still 2:1 ratio, but it is not easy to make ketogenic meals at the beginning, each of them has to be weighed, and the same olive oil, but different brands, may have different food ingredients, also need to calculate, therefore, it takes more time to do it at the beginning, if the types of meals do not change much, do a few days to become skilled, watching the child eat every meal is very fragrant, and the condition is also under control, heart really has a sense of achievement. When we were a little relieved, at 12:00 p.m., the child was sleeping and suddenly hummed a few times, and then opened his eyes every 5 minutes and hummed a few times. I was so anxious that I rushed to contact Dr. Wang late at night, who advised us to find out the cause and to fast for breakfast the next day. The next day, I asked the grandmother, who had secretly given the child a few raisins on the first day because she felt sorry for the child, which led to the seizures. Therefore, I would like to remind parents of ketogenic children that they must be strictly ketogenic, and our parents’ momentary sympathy can affect the ketogenic effect of the child and cause the child’s condition to recur, which is really harmful to her. From this episode, the urine ketones started to decrease to 2 +, followed by bunches of small episodes again at night in bed three days apart. I also want to mention here that I made a very detailed ketogenic log, recording the ketone values measured every day, the types and ratios of the meals served, and the time the child ate, etc. These are homework that ketogenic children must do in order to find the pattern of seizures and provide a reference for future fine adjustments. In the first month of ketogenesis, the child had three seizures, all of which occurred at night during sleep. Dr. Wang adjusted the meal times and calories for us, and commented that the ketogenic diet was effective for our child, encouraging us to persevere. The dramatic reduction in seizures also increased our confidence to stick with the treatment. During the second month of ketogenesis, our child’s urine ketones decreased again to 1+ and the number of seizures started to increase. Due to inexperience, we did not pay attention to this and once we had chicken soup at home and thought it did not contain carbohydrates, so we gave our child a small bowl of it. During the second month of ketogenesis, there were seizures on six days. It is also important to note that for each day of the seizure, we contacted Dr. Wang in a timely manner and she told us what to do. For example, if we had a seizure caused by stealing food, she advised us to fast for two meals to get our ketone levels up again before starting a normal diet. Starting at the beginning of the third month of ketogenesis, we were stable and seizure-free for almost another half month. One day when we took the child outside to play, the child liked basketball shooting, and just after about 10 minutes of shooting, suddenly his body shook a few times and subsequently fell to the ground, followed by seizures every hour or so, for a total of four seizures. After talking to Dr. Wang, she thought that the child’s basketball activity was too strenuous and was exercise-induced, and that he should avoid strenuous activities and do more soothing exercises. From the beginning of this month, Dr. Wang suggested that we perform four to six or more blood ketone tests every day for better fine tuning, in order to get a good idea of the appropriate ketone range for our child. After testing, the child generally had lower blood ketone values in the morning, usually between 0,5-0,8, and higher ketone values in the evening, usually between 0,8-1,2, with blood glucose always between 4,5-6. There were three days of seizures in the third month. Because of our child’s good absorption function, weight loss after ketogenesis was very slow, and only 3 kg was lost after three months of ketogenesis, and Dr. Wang lowered our calories twice during this period. The fourth month of ketogenesis was the hardest month for us, and we almost stopped this treatment at one point. On New Year’s Eve, the whole family was having New Year’s Eve dinner, looking at the table full of food, but the child could not eat, we were very upset. Two hours later, with a burst of firecrackers, the child just woke up and had another seizure and went back to sleep until close to the early morning to welcome the New Year. The most frightening thing was that for the next eight consecutive days, the child seemed to be back to her pre-ketogenic state, still having seizures every day, with dull eyes and slow reactions. During this period, Dr. Wang gave us two fine adjustments, which were not very effective either. At this point, the family began to disagree, saying that the child was too poor to eat and couldn’t eat, and that it wasn’t under control, so they might as well stop. Because the child had changed medication before, this phenomenon often occurred, the first few days effective, the next could not be controlled. And on the first day of the new year, the child had another seizure and broke his head, so even I was a little skeptical that the ketogenic was the same and not working for us, which put me in a tangle. On the ninth day after the consecutive seizures, Dr. Wang encouraged me not to be discouraged, as this is a common occurrence with ketogenic children, and she told us to try ketogenesis again, so we repeated the process of starting ketogenesis again and increased the ratio to 2,25:1, and the child’s condition stabilized again. After this, the child went into a cyclic seizure state, basically having seizures one day a week, but with a reduced level and duration of seizures. During this period, Dr. Wang also kept guiding me to make fine adjustments. The heat card and ratio were constantly being adjusted, and the blood ketone value was also changing. It was found that the too high blood ketone value was not suitable for us, and through continuous exploration, Dr. Wang let us adjust the ratio to 2,5:1, and the blood ketone value was stabilized between 0,5 and 1. In this way, by May 2015, when our child had been on ketogenic treatment for six months, I brought her back to Shanghai Deji Hospital for a review. After a 24-hour dynamic EEG examination, the child’s EEG had improved greatly, her weight had decreased by 5 kg, and her mental state was much better, becoming lively and cheerful. When I saw Dr. Wang, I didn’t know how to express my gratitude to her. Dr. Wang asked us in detail about the seizures and carefully examined the ketogenic records. Now she can go out to buy breakfast during the seizure cycle, a feeling that most parents of children with epilepsy will have a deep appreciation for. Dr. Wang also told us that we must adhere to strict ketogenesis, and the child will make even more progress. In addition, Professor Guo Hui added lamotrigine to the three medications we have been taking until now, magnesium valproate, clonazepam and lamotrigine, through our review EEG report. In the seventh month after the review came home, the child’s seizures became a half-monthly cycle and the number and extent of seizures were decreasing. By the eighth and ninth months it was one day of seizures per month, all in bunches of 3-4 small seizures. During this period, the child’s weight did not change much, and after each attack, Dr. Wang advised us to reduce the diet by half for one day to raise the ketone level. In this way, from the ninth month to the present, the child’s seizures have been basically completely controlled, except for two uncontrollable basketball triggers during this period. Our ketogenic diet treatment has achieved good results, and we really can’t do it without the hard work and tireless encouragement of Dr. Wang Man’s medical team. Therefore, it is recommended that patients on ketogenic diet treatment must have strong confidence and not give up treatment easily. In November, one year after our ketogenic treatment, I brought my child to Shanghai Deji Hospital again for a review, and the EEG results were again much improved compared to six months ago. The child’s mental state has improved greatly, her cognitive and motor skills have improved, she loves to talk and laugh, she has lost 11 kg in weight, she is beautiful and slim, and she can help me with many household chores at home. On behalf of my family, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the medical staff for their excellent medical skills and benevolence. They have brought us a happy life with their excellent medical skills, professionalism and responsible attitude!