My Epileptic Life

There are many reasons why living with epilepsy is much harder than you would think it would be. Here are my top 5 reasons why 1.    You can have a seizure and not know it! Many seizures are not visible and even if they are somewhat visible, if you are home alone there will be nobody there to witness it anyway. There have been many times when I have found myself wandering aimlessly around my house, with no clue what I am doing. There is nothing more confusing then suddenly finding yourself in a completely different room to the one you remember last being in, with a banging headache, lots of confusion and occasionally a bump, cut or bruise. The best part is you get so used to it, you just continue going about your daily business once the confusion clears. 2.      “Flashing lights” are everywhere! First, it is important to remember that not everybody with epilepsy will be affected by flashing lights, but for those that are “flashing lights” are ...

The debate between using the term “fit” or “seizure” is a hot topic currently, both in the epilepsy community and the medical world. What is the correct way to describe an “epileptic episode”? I recently read an article that said a large percentage of Drs used the word “fit” instead of seizure. Not going to lie this made me a little bit sad. Many people with epilepsy dislike the term “fit”, myself included, and spend time educating and encouraging people to use the correct terms, only to have those in the medical profession let us down and use the (in my opinion) somewhat derogatory term. From a personal perspective I do not like the term “fit” and here is why. I feel it downplays the seriousness of a seizure. When I was a child if myself or my sister threw a strop, my dad would refer to us as “having a fit” or “having a hissy fit”. In other words, we were having a tantrum because we couldn’t have what we wanted. I am sure we have all seen a toddler throw themselves down o...

Today has been one of those days where nothing has gone right, nothing has been done and my head hasn’t stopped hurting. Today is just one of those bad days. We all have them don’t we. My only problem is, today is a bad day in a string of bad days. It is another day, in a line of about 3 days, where I feel like a complete failure at life. If I had the energy today I would have cried, but I don’t. I don’t have any energy whatsoever. I barely had enough energy to walk down the stairs this morning. After only being awake 1 hour 15 minutes I was exhausted, hot, my head hurt and all I wanted to do was sleep. I have had a mild temperature for a couple of days now and have felt under the weather as the phrase goes. I think I am coming down with something, I am prone to water and kidney infections, so I am hoping the litres of water and cranberry juice I am drinking will flush any nasties away and help me feel better. I am not always comfortable talking about being unwell, especi...