My life with epilepsy began when I was a baby. I got diagnosed when I was a few months old. I had seizures and I was in and out of the hospital, a lot because I was so young having them. As I got older I had grand mal seizure. I only had them until I was 5 because I had a VNS put in and it gave me my life back. I called my VNS my angel because I could just be a kid! My VNS made it so I could go to school and play with my friends. I was always a happy kid! I loved life even though it wasn’t always the easiest when I would be a kid and have a seizure in front of your friends and they say something. But being the bright girl, I told them that I had epilepsy. I always was open about it. I always had fun and I enjoyed my childhood! I always had my family right there beside me the whole way. When I had seizures when I was younger. Someone would swipe my VNS it would pull me out of it and my family always had a magnet with them. Even today my friends or family will swipe my VNS and someone always has a magnet with them! Things got better around the age of 6. I was aloud to start spending the night at my friends because my seizures where just that much better! I started doing sports! Then I became seizure-free for a year and a half! When I was 8 the first time I had a seizure In a year half it was when during the 4th July. It really bothered me because I thought I was done having seizures but I wasn’t. I still have them because God has a plan for me.
As I got older I started having drop attacks and I would have seizures that only lasted a few seconds here and there. Then when I became a teen it all changed. They got a lot worse I started having more drop attacks and my seizure lasted longer. I was changing medicines a lot until they got me under control. It took me a long time to get under control. Now I’m doing a little better. They are still trying to get me leveled on my medicine.
Living with epilepsy doesn’t mean you’re SICK or that you’re WEAK It means that you’re STRONGER then you think! You have to fight a battle every day and sometimes you lose, but everyday you wake up fighting with everything you got and you go to bed fighting.
‘Normal’ people don’t realize how hard it is for us to fight epilepsy everyday. Epilepsy isn’t just seizures but it’s also hallucinations, Sensory over load, OCD intensified, developmental disorders, anxiety, being tired, thought process issues and many more. Then of course there’s dating, and being around friends and family after having seizures and they treat you differently sometimes.
You never know when or how your going to have a seizure or where.
Then there are the friends and family that watch you have a seizure that hold your hand keep you safe, then act like absolutely nothing weird just happened. THOSE ARE MY TRUE TREASURES!
Strangers become friends and you also figure out who your real friends are!
