Little Sydney Michaels had her first seizure just days before she turned three months old. That seizure lasted well over 20 minutes. Within weeks, her seizures rapidly increased in number, frequency, and length. Multiple drugs & combinations of drugs were attempted and failed. New seizure types continually emerged. No answers were given as to why the seizures were occurring, only that she would probably grow out of them. Everything seemed to trigger seizures in Sydney…light, water, sound, touch, excitement, movement, etc… Sydney eventually reached a point where she was having thousands of seizures daily with three to five general tonic-clonic seizures weekly, most of which required Emergency Room visits. The decision was finally made to try the Ketogenic diet with then 10 month old Sydney. There was vast improvement with the diet even though it didn’t completely remove all her seizures. Finally, at 11 months of age, the answer was found on a DNA test. Sydney was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome (Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy), which occurs when a mutation takes place on SCN1a gene.

Now, Sydney is almost four year old. Her seizures continue because Dravet Syndrome is typically not well controlled through medication. She is still on the Ketogenic diet & she also eye patches to control her seizures. She is developmentally delayed but is an expert at making others smile. Earlier this year, Sydney’s older brother Aaron also had a couple of seizures. His EEG revealed that he constantly has abnormal spikes in his brain waves; although, he has tested negative for Dravet Syndrome. In June, the family obtained a service dog, Lexus, from 4 Paws for Ability to help alert to Sydney’s seizures. To learn more about Sydney, Aaron, and Lexus the service dog, visit their website www.sydneyagainstdravet.org