Today is a Friday and Maelani is skipping school to head to Disney in southern California.  Well, Maelani is our security blanket while Sarah is at school as the is in many of her classes and with her most of the day.  For the other classes, we have put plans in place if Sarah needs any help

With her early warning system, we have about 10-15 minutes before a potential event.  At a minimum get her to the ground safely while trying to get her to the nurse’s office to be in private.

Without Maelani in school, we decided to keep Sarah home and just because, we let her brother play hooky as well.  I took the kids to breakfast that morning.  It was nice but it was also obvious was not herself because of the Keppra.

Ricky was trying to tell Sarah something but she wasn’t hearing him or not getting it and he got frustrated.  I looked at him and I saw him realize it was the meds and he quickly change his demeaner.  

I haven’t talked much about Ricky, but he is also very concerned about all this and understands what is going on.  He loves his sister very much!

Today we switched the magnesium glycinate to magnesium threonate.  Based the research I have done, the threonate has the ability to pass through the blood, brain barrier (BBB) much easier.  

When at Stanford, I asked the doctor how the Keppra works.  He said, “it acts as a calcium channel blocker.”  I had come across this phrase many times in my research and in laymen terms it stops the glutamate from making it into the neuron preventing it from firing.

I have also read that this is how magnesium works in the brain as well so logic says a magnesium that can pass the BBB is a better form of magnesium.

I was talking to my neighbor Daryl just before he was going on a weekend camping trip over the labor day weekend.  He was telling me he has been trying to control what he calls “head tremors”.  I’m not exactly sure what that means but it sounds neurological in nature.

He mentioned he has been trying to solve that issue with magnesium, so I mentioned the threonate I just received for Sarah.  I gave him a baggie with about a 4-5 day supply to try out.

9/7/2021

Daryl got back from his camping trip today.  He sent me a message, “Morning, can you send me a link for the magnesium you ordered that stuff is awesome.”  Wow, talk about a testimonial.  He went on to say, “It seemed to really help with my head tremors and like you I just seemed to be in a better mood.”  I said that was so great to hear.  He continued, “Yes it is, because so much of what I take seems to do nothing.”

You never know about these things.  Our brains are so powerful with the placebo effect but it does seem like Daryl is very in tune with his body and really noticed a difference.

Today Sarah and I drove to Stanford to get wired up the a 24-hour EEG.  I could tell Sarah is in a grumpy mood.  Doing this just makes this condition real again.  It’s about a 45-minute drive and trying to have a conversation was very difficult with Sarah’s one word sentences.

I started by talking about the 2 colleges we are going to visit this month in Idaho.  She is interested in the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) and per my suggestion, Idaho State University (ISU).  Both these colleges have rodeo programs which is a driving factor in the college she chooses.

Rodeo!  This is new to me as of last month.  Although Sarah has been involved with horses since she was 5 years old, she stopped riding several years ago.  I’m really not sure why she stopped.  She did start doing water polo in school which I hope to report in the summary of the document as the beginning of all this.

I’ve always been interested in flying.  I have about 100 hours logged in a Cessna but never got my license because of either no money, or no time.  Anyway, always been intrigued with plane crashes and why they happen.  The common theme is that there is not one thing that brought the plane down but a sequence of events.  And that the sequence of events could span a long period of time.

Well, I think that is going to be the case here with Sarah’s story and I think the start was water polo which I hope to talk about later.

Although the college Sarah picks is her choice, I also have opinions and share those with Sarah.  I asked, what is a pro of CSI.  She said, “it has a large rodeo program.”  What is a con.  She did not have one.  What about ISU, what is a pro?  Quickly replied, “it is a 4-year college.”

Now whether she really believes that or just repeating my talking point, I’m not sure.  We will be moving with Sarah whatever college she picks.  We feel we have to with her recent condition that just developed in her senior year of high school.  It’s hard enough when he is only 4 minutes from us now.

CSI is a two-year, community college and ISU is a typical 4-year college.  Our plan as of last month was to move as soon as possible to get plugged into the community, a barn with horse and a trainer.  The sooner we get plugged the sooner Sarah can start training.  

This of course is all dependent on Sarah’s condition being solved.  For the same reasons Sarah can’t drive a vehicle, she can’t be riding a 2000lb animal at high speeds.  She wanted to start riding with her longtime friend Norah this past summer, but I had to tell her that is just not possible for the reasons stated above.

We are being very optimistic that we will be solving this problem so we are going to make this move sooner rather than later to get plugged in.

For some reason Sarah is attached to CSI.  I think only because she has started emailing the coach on her own.  I also think she is aware she hasn’t ridden in several years and really not ridden in high competition environments.  She did ride in gymkhana but with a very slow horse.  She knows she has a lot of work and dedication to be anything even close to good enough to be on a point team.

For some reason, Sarah thinks CSI will be more accommodating to her lack of training, I believe.  In my opinion it would be more advantageous to get plugged into a 4-year school so as not to have to move again after a two-year school.  

Well, we will be doing a road trip September 18^th to check out both CSI and ISU.  Everybody is perfectly content with moving to Idaho and sooner rather than later.