My Epileptic Life

“When something goes wrong in your life just yell “plot twist” and move on” My daily life has more plot twists than EastEnders, though, thankfully, not as dramatic. So far, I haven’t been murdered with an ashtray or kidnapped and buried alive. My plot twists are subtler and mostly involve being fine and dandy one minute and then in bed with a headache, pain killers and two king Charles cavaliers for company the next. Today is a perfect example of these kinds of plot twists. At 9am this morning I was work ready, all smiles and lipstick. I was extra happy because I had found the most perfect pink shade of lipstick in my collection that matched my eyeshadow perfectly. By 1.30pm I was in bed with a headache, pale, puffy eyed and in unicorn pjs, not a lipstick in sight. A two-hour nap followed. Let’s be honest, we all know I love a good nap, but not when I have a list of jobs and tasks longer than my arm to get completed. Thankfully, I managed to be at work as planned this morn...

After all the stress of exams and the anxiety of waiting for results (mine not his, he was as cool as a cucumber, I, on the other hand, started turning grey) the teen is officially starting the next chapter of his life. He got the results he needed to get into college and will be enrolling this week! He suddenly seems very grown up and I am not sure I like it. On a positive note, he will be attending the college where I work. I am sure you can all imagine my excitement at this. The teen, however, would be more excited about a root canal than he is about being in the same building as me and his friends at the same time! At the start of the summer he set a requirement that I don’t do anything embarrassing while he is at college. I thought this seemed fair and was a pretty easy rule to follow, after all I don’t think I am remotely embarrassing. As summer progressed, however, the teen has produced a list of things he classes as embarrassing and that I am under no circumstan...

The summer holidays are coming to an end, back to school shopping has been completed and the countdown has begun. To help round off the summer holidays on a super fun note we decided to have a big family day out to Inflata nation in Beverley. If you don’t know what Inflata nation it is basically a huge inflatable assault course type thing. It contains ball pools, slides, gladiator rings and an assault course. Before we went we watched some advertising videos on Facebook and it looked amazing. Great fun for both the children, teen and adults. We were lucky enough to book a session on the first day Inflata nation opened in Beverley. Before I give you all my honest opinion on the place, and whether I feel it is epilepsy friendly, let me just tell you it was so much fun! Everyone enjoyed it. The children, the teen and the adults. Obviously, there were the usual dramas that seem to follow our family everywhere still occurred. The girl child dragged one of the family friends ...

If you google epilepsy and anxiety you will find a vast amount of scientific information explaining the correlation between the two and outlining the medical reasons behind the link. All of which is very useful if you are a scientist or a doctor, or just fascinated by facts and figures. If, however, you are like me, you’re not interested in why it’s happening or the links between your medication and your anxiety, you just want to know two things, how to control/stop it and that you are not alone. First, let me start by telling you, you really are not alone. If you are experiencing anxiety, whether it is just a quickening heartbeat when you’re out shopping or it’s so crippling you can’t leave the safety of your own home, take comfort in knowing you are not alone. Epilepsy related anxiety appears to be a very common side effect of both epilepsy itself and the medications we take to control it. It’s like a double whammy. It is as common as headaches and sleep problems. We just s...

1: Burns, scalds and bruises: Regardless of how controlled your seizures are, it is inevitable at one point you are going to end up with a burn, scald or bruise because of a seizure. Myoclonic jerks and twitches are the worst for this I have found. One minute you’re getting your perfect Yorkshire puddings out of the oven, the next minute you have twitched, your hand is now sporting a massive burn and the dogs are chowing down on the Yorkshire puddings that have inevitably ended on the floor! I would always suggest having a fully stocked first aid kit in your house. 2: You are NEVER going to remember people’s names and/or faces. EVER. I have yet to meet a person with epilepsy that has a good memory, particularly recall of names and faces. There will be many times when someone you clearly know is talking to you and you cannot for the life of you remember their name! The teenager has a friend called Aaron, I have been calling him Arnold for four years now because for some reason...

First things first, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer break and all you parents out there haven’t lost the will to live yet. Currently I have considered sending the teenager to borstal at least 15 times and have also contemplated changing my name and chopping my ears off so I don’t have to hear “I’m hungry” one more time. How can you be hungry? You had a snack 6 minutes ago. Anyway, in the spirit of the summer holidays and spending time together as a family, we went to Digger land on Monday. Anyone with teenagers or children will know the effort involved in planning any sort of day out and the sheer determination you must have just to get everyone out of the door, on time and with everything you need for the day. Thankfully, by 9am Monday morning we were in the car, the picnic, containing enough food to feed the five thousand because nobody will eat the same lunch, is in the boot, sensible shoes are on everyone’s feet, the children and teenagers alike have enough devices...

Parenting is a difficult, fulltime, lifelong job (just ask my mum). It is full of tears, tantrums, thrown toys and seriously rubbish attitudes, and that is just from the parents! Parenting doesn’t get any easier the older the children get, their needs just change and, as a result, so does your parenting style and parental challenges. I wouldn’t say parenting with epilepsy is any harder than parenting without it, it just brings a different set of challenges and obstacles for you to overcome. Aside from the health and safety risks that can sometimes occur (that’s a topic for another blog) I think one of the biggest challenges epilepsy brings to the parenting world is the feeling that as a parent you are not good enough. Feeling that you are in some way letting your child/children down because of your condition. You suddenly feel like a failure because you must cancel a fun day out after a seizure, or you can’t go on all the big rides at the theme park. The memory issues you hav...

I am aware this might be a touchy subject for some, but it is something I feel is important to address. The first point I want to address is the idea within society now that a woman wearing revealing, tight or short items of clothing deserves to be treated like a piece of meat. That they deserve unwanted attention, wolf whistling, to be touched and other vile things I don’t even want to think about much less write. There are religions societies, social groups and many other organisations that teach young women if they wear tight clothing or a short skirt they are asking to be treated like an object and not a person. That by wearing tight yoga pants to the gym they are inviting men to touch them or make suggestive and inappropriate comments. Society also teaches young men that it is not their fault if they are overcome with the natural urge to treat women as an object it is not their fault but the fault of the women. While this may be an acceptable way to think to some …. It i...