The Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD) holds a 3-day meeting every year to discuss and share ideas about metabolic disorders. This year, the meeting included a satellite session on Cerebral Creatine Deficiency Syndromes, hosted by the Association for Creatine Deficiencies. Our ACD team was represented by the irrepressible dynamic duo Heidi Wallis and Laura Trutoiu. Continue reading
Watching the videos that are posted from the conference brings back the excitement and all the feels from being at the Symposium, surrounded by a community of families, kiddos, medical professionals, researchers, and pharma companies with one thing in common: a vested interest in Cerebral Creatine Deficiency Syndromes. Continue reading
When it was decided to do the first ACD Scientific Symposium and Family Conference in Austin, TX 2018, the idea that so many of us would be all together for the first time, brought on a lot of hopes for a successful conference. The idea that we would have the world’s leading experts in creatine deficiencies, communicating in the same room, and then to be surrounded by CCDS parents and their children that I feel like I’ve known for years, and yet had never met, was incredibly special. We were all excited. This was going to be an amazing opportunity. What could we do with this meeting to really capture it? After all, we thought that we may not have another opportunity like this for years. The answer was clear: A video! Continue reading
The ACD Conference held in Austin, TX in July 2018 was truly a wonderful experience and opportunity for so many of us in the CCDS community. While we were not able to attend, we were given the opportunity to view the presentation and slides as presented by renowned GAMT expert, Dr. Andreas Schulze. Continue reading
Our son Dylan, who is 5 and was diagnosed with CTD earlier this year, was originally diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 2. At that time Dylan had a series of seizures including multiple tonic-clonic seizures and 1 absence (that we are aware of). Dylan had 2 sleep EEG’s, the second EEG showed an abnormal EEG and he was put on Epilim Chrono sodium valproate. Continue reading
Did you know the Association for Creatine Deficiencies has an amazing patient registry? For rare diseases, patient registries are critical to understanding the progression of the disease and the outcomes families can expect. Our patient registry is strong but we need your help to take it to the next level and include genetic data. Continue reading
September is National Newborn Screening Awareness Month, and on that note, we would like to share with you the 2018 CCDS Symposium presentation “Qualifying Newborn Screening.” Continue reading
On a balmy night in late July we flew into Austin for the first Cerebral Creatine Deficiencies Syndrome (CCDS) Scientific + Patient Symposium. It was the kind of midsummer night when everything is possible and magic is in the air. Except that instead of magic we had science and instead of mythical creatures we had another rare sort of encounter: a hotel packed with researchers, creatine experts, and CCDS families. We had high expectations, were a little nervous, and some of us way too excited for having seen airplanes (aka Ehy-paynes) up close. Little did we know how our expectations would be blown away and how this symposium would become the beacon of hope we’d been searching for in the past year. Continue reading
Wow! I’m still processing all of the things I learned from the 2018 conference in Austin. The CCDS Symposium was incredible! For me, the information was invaluable and as a result, I feel more equipped going into doctor and therapy appointments. Even more amazing were the connections and networking that happened—as a result of the ACD bringing scientists, doctors, pharma companies, therapists, and families together. Continue reading
“It’s so Austin…” I heard that sentence a lot the weekend of July 27-29. I inferred it to mean several different things- odd, wacky, unique. The hotel elevator has to use your room key to unlock the button so you can go up a floor, and it had no rhyme or reason if it was going to go up or down… It’s so Austin! The doughnut shop around the corner, Voodoo Doughnuts (brought to all of our attention by Mac Cafferty), where you can buy a cereal topped doughnut or one shaped like a voodoo doll… It’s so Austin! The local zoo that only houses rescue animals and its very offbeat and rustic landscape… It’s so Austin! So it seemed fitting that our odd, wacky, and unique CCDS Family was all congregated together in this town known for the odd, wacky, and unique. This is how our “family reunion” of sorts went down for the Alveys. Continue reading
