Ketogenic Diet - Day 1

We arrived at the hospital at 9am and went to the lab to have blood work done.  Karter was a trooper; especially since they had to poke him 4 times to get all the blood they needed.  He never winced or complained, he is an amazing guy, I would have been passed out on the floor for certain.

Once we were finished at the lab, we headed off to the clinic to get a baseline heigh and weight as well as a blood pressure reading.

Training started at 10am.  We met with the clinician of the ketogenic diet team.  By this point, Karter had been fasting for 14 hours and had only had a small amount of water in the morning.   His mood was good.  He played happily and was engaged,

We did training for about 2 hours, going through a basic understanding of what the diet was.  What we would need to watch over the next 48 hour and then ongoing.  We learned how to measure keytone, blood glucose and to spot and treat hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or keto-acidosis (when the build up of keytones in the body are too high).  We learned what he can and cannot have on the diet and various other basic concepts for the diet.  I had read all the information they had suggested, so this teaching unit was just a deeper understanding, not new information.  I was pretty happy I had done my homework ;-).

By lunch time, Karter had his first meal, a liquid meal (fluids are very important on the diet, but of extreme importance in the first week as the body starts to process the high amounts of fats.

Karter has 30 minutes to consume each meal or snack, from the start of the first bite.  Once the 30 mins is up, he in not allowed to consume any more.  He got 2/3 of the “eggnog” shake that was his lunch.

We met with the dietician in the afternoon and had an hour of training with her.  Before we went home, we had to take Karter’s blood sugars.  For the first 48 hours, every 6 hours, blood sugars need to be taken;  8 and 2 around the clock.  This was something I was not expecting.  Luckily, Kurt was able to step into this role!  Again, my son, such a trooper, just let us do what we needed to do without complaint.

We were finished around 2:30.  We found ourselves mentally tired from the amount of information we consumed, but not at all overwhelmed.

Karter had a snack in the afternoon and evening and another liquid meal for dinner.  His portion size is shockingly small but the caloric density of fat is far higher than that of charbohydrates, so the portions appear small but the calories are the same.

One thing I really heard and took with me was that the food he takes in is to be thought of as medication, not as nutrition for his body.  Throwing out all that we know of what we need to eat to meet out nutritional needs and replacing it with an understanding of how this metabolic change in how the body process its fuel.  Karter’s nutrition will be dependent on supplements more than the food put in his mouth.

We took his blood sugars at 2am and they were still within the normal range.  So far, Karter has responded well and seems to be tolerating well.