365 Seizure Free: Morning Routine of an Epileptic

365 Seizure Free: Morning routine of an epileptic 

5 days down, 360 to go.  

First, let me start by saying the summer holidays are far from relaxing! Feel like I have been eaten out of house and home and when the husband is at work the only conversations I have are “what’s for dinner” and “what’s for tea”. Roll on September so I can go back to work and reclaim a scrap of sanity.  

OK, now on to the good stuff. The seizure free days. Days 4 and 5 have passed without so much as a sniff of a seizure, thank goodness, however, it has not all been plain sailing. I have had a painful headache both days and have been exhausted. I don’t know if it is the epilepsy headache that has made me feel so tired or if it is my brain working hard to keep me seizure free, regardless of the cause I have been so tired and as a result have completed nothing on my list of jobs for the week, apart from taking naps. I have totally managed to complete that task.  

I go to bed on a night and think of all the things I am going to do the next day. Clean, write, go shopping, bake, keep people alive, bath the dogs. I convince myself that all these tasks will be completed the next day. I even imagine myself bouncing around like the Duracell bunny while I whiz through my job list. Then I wake up. Normally pretty groggy from all the medication I take on an evening, grumpy because I have set myself a massive li grumpy because I have set myself a massive list of jobs to do, and with no motivation whatsoever. In an attempt to give myself a kick up the backside I will check my Instagram, you can always count on someone to have posted an uplifting or inspirational quote for the day. I read the quote of the day and the usually nauseating statement the poster has written to accompany it. You know the type of statements I mean, the “Feeling totally positive and ready for the day today” or “step outside, take a deep breath and remind yourself how great you are”. No thanks pal. If I step outside and take a deep breath I'm either going to smell dog pee or muck spreading, neither of which makes me feel great and ready for breakfast. Then you get the posts from the modern day Mr Motivators of the world. Pictures of them wearing sweaty vests and knock of beats headphones, posing in the gym and telling the world how they have had a great workout and what a fabulous start to the day it is. They are #pumped and #motivated. Pipe down posing Pete, we all know you have spent 90 percent of your time at the gym posing for that Instagram photo and the sweat is nothing more than a splash of water from the protein shake bottle you take with you to the gym to make you look like a serious contender.  

By this point I am desperate drag myself out of bed and jump in the shower. The nauseating insta posts can’t follow me in there. Depending on if I have plans to leave the house that day depends on what clothes I throw on after the shower. If I am not going anywhere I will totally opt for a comfy outfit of tracksuit bottoms and a hoody. Probably won’t even bother straightening my hair either. If I am going out I make more of an effort. No need to let the world and its wife know that you are struggling. Regardless of what I wear I ALWAYS slap a bit of lipstick on. Lipstick makes life better.  

Finally, I venture downstairs and take my medication, beating Mr Motivator’s one protein shake with 8 tablets. I look at the clock and count down how many hours it will be until I hear the words “what’s for dinner” and how many hours I need to stay awake before it is acceptable to take a nap.  

That is a successful morning for this epileptic.