Surviving family life with epilepsy

Surviving family life with epilepsy 

Life is busy, family life is even busier and epilepsy is time consuming. Here are my 4 top tips on how to survive family life if you have epilepsy 
1 the first tip and probably the most important, at least for me, is to TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF!. Stop comparing yourself to other wives, husbands, mums, dads or whoever else you are comparing yourself to. You are an individual, your situation is unique to you and your family. So what if Suzy down the road bakes her own bread everyday and only feeds her children homegrown produce. Who really cares if Amanda from the school gates has a house that is so clean you could eat your dinner from the floor and a teenager so well behaved she forgets they are there, or if Simon the school dad volunteers for every school event, lives a vegan lifestyle and has children who are angels.  I promise you a solid 90 percent of the stuff they are telling you is lies, but more importantly why are you comparing yourself!. I do this all the time and it is so bad for my health. My family are fed, my house is clean and they all know how much I love them. Sometimes tea might come from the freezer, or heaven forbid the takeaway but at least they eat! So my first and most important tip is to stop comparing yourself to others, take the pressure off and just do you! 


  1. Utilise your freezer. A meal from the freezer is still a meal!. When you make certain meals (lasagne, casserole etc) make extra and freeze some, then on those days when you’re not feeling great and you don’t have the energy to whip up a home cooked meal from scratch all you need to do is open the freezer and bobs your uncle! You can even microwave them .... life made simple or what! 
  2. Have a family planner so you always know what’s happening, who is supposed to be where and when, appointment dates, school trips , exams .. literally everything. If your epilepsy impacts on your memory like mine does, this will become your new best friend
  3. Check the places you are going on family days out are suitable for you all. Obviously this depends on the type of epilepsy you (or even your child) has as to what specific needs you need to be met and what things are dangerous for you etc. What I mean by check is if, for example, your epilepsy is photo sensitive check with the cinema before you go that the movie doesn’t have strobe lighting ... this helps avoid any shocks or dramas at the cinema and means that you can all have an enjoyable experience

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changing a negative into a positive. Why I love Humberside Police

Image
Ooohh mentioning any police force is always a little risky isn’t it. There are always going to be those people who are anti-police for one reason or another, often because they have had a negative experience with the police ….or they have been locked up!. If you are one of those people hear me out and keep on reading , let me explain to you how my negative experience turned into something positive and beneficial for more people than just myself. OK, now we have got that out of the way, grab your brew, settle in and lets get on with the story. When I was first diagnosed with epilepsy it was uncontrolled and I could have a seizure at any point in the day. Obviously it was all new to me and I wasn’t always aware of the auras I was experiencing or indeed my triggers, to keep myself safe. Picture the scene, I had been to the cinema with some friends on a Saturday evening. By the time the movie finished it was about 10.30pm. Where I live the cinema is on the ground floor of a build...
Read more

Can you teach with epilepsy?

Image
Can you teach with epilepsy? I suppose the short answer is yes. There are, however, a few things you need to consider before starting your teaching journey.    How often do you have seizures?   I am a prime example that you can have seizures and still teach. There is a common misconception that you must be completely seizure free to teach. This is not true. You do, however, need to consider how often you experience seizures, your recovery time and the impact seizures have on you when deciding if now is the right time to embark on a teaching career. Only you can decide if the frequency of your seizures and the impact they have on your ability to function is manageable. If you experience seizures every day or numerous times a day it might be difficult to both  train  to be a teacher and also to teach, particularly if you have a long recovery time. It is important to remember though that even if you decide right now is not the time to embark on teacher tr...
Read more

Eliminating headaches ..part one

Image
Any of you that have been reading this blog for a while will know that I always have a headache. I can’t remember a day when I’ve not had a headache. Some days the pain is just like an annoying niggle that can be ignored with the help of a couple of paracetamol. On other days, it feels like a ten-ton elephant is dancing on my head, wearing stilettos and a sparkly tutu. On those days, no amount of paracetamol, ice packs or crying is going to shift it. I used to take stronger painkillers but they’re not healthy for you (and I am already unhealthy enough) so I stopped taking them. Sadly, Nelly the elephant has yet to receive the memo telling her river dance in my brain has been cancelled. I asked on twitter for some ideas on how to stop the headaches without strong medication. I got lots of replies and lots of good ideas, so I thought I would give them all a try and see which ones, if any, work best for me. A couple of people suggested meditation in a dark room, possibly wi...
Read more