Lots of changes

Karsen has been doing great! With the med now at it's max full dosage (that we are testing out) as of today, he's handled the med really well. We decided to put him on triepital (not keppra since his aggression is already bad) and really we can't complain. He seems more alert at school and at home, the only side affect we've seen so far is drowsiness, he takes crazy long naps (3-3.5 hours). But it seems temporary until he gets adjusted to the med increase. So far I am still seeing his staring spells but like I said he's still just now at the last increase. We have two appointments tomorrow at Stanford. We'll be spending all day there again, not for an EEG thankfully but just because our appointments are a bit spaced out. We have his eye check up to see how his glasses are doing and see if we need to change his prescription and neuro to follow up on everything that has gone on in the last year. The drive is not fun, but I really can't complain since we have such an amazing neuro. 

We've decided to cut out ALL screen time for Karsen for a while. Crazy right?! I mean it's not that crazy, but for those of you that know Karsen, he is a technology junky. We met with his pediatrician last week and went over all that has happened lately and talked a little about his aggression and what to do, as well as his drooling..... ugh..... yes drooling that's a whole different story,  and went over his blood work on food allergies. It was a pretty long appointment as usual and I left crying in my car..... fun! Just simply because Karsen was DONE, done being in that tiny little room. After talking to his pediatrician about aggression she had mentioned a study being done on kids (any kid) where screen time has been linked to aggression..... She told me this as Karsen and Karter were planted in front of the ipad. Maybe that's why I cried in the car, well, ok, not maybe... yes, that is why I cried in the car. I had failed, I totally used screen time as a crutch to get through the day of making dinner, sending emails, getting a break and I felt like I had completely failed my kids. I'm no where perfect and that's ok, but I knew each time I'd put on the TV, deep down that it wasn't the best thing for them. So, I pulled myself together, talked to Kuper and cut screen time all together for at least two weeks maybe a month. It's been going so well (8 days in) that I totally think we could do more than a month of zero screen time. Later on we'll have movie nights still and do small amounts but we will NOT be doing any screen time during the week permanently. It takes me a bit longer to do certain things, like dinner and shower, I've now learned how to shower by strobe lighting (thank you Karsen) but Karsen's freak outs have gotten much less so I have no issue sticking with it as long as I see positive results. 

We had a great Thanksgiving. Went to my parents with my sister's fam. Karsen LOVED the mashed potatoes and devoured a slice of pumpkin pie (that's my kid). We have so much to be thankful for this year. We are so blessed to have our house, our boys, our health. This year has been an amazing year. I'm looking forward to lots of memories in the coming weeks. 

Couldn't leave you with out a sweet pic of my handsome little man. (sending a package to his runner buddy, April)