My Epileptic Life

Epilepsy is not  pretty,  it is not glamorous. You can’t choose a  coloured  cast for it and make it cute. You can’t treat it. You can’t cure it. You can only manage it.    I’m not finding writing this blog post particularly easy today. I have had 3 attempts so far and each one has failed to express how I feel and the reality of my life with epilepsy. There are parts of my life and my journey that are easy to share. The comical parts and the parts where I have achieved something despite the epilepsy. Don’t get me wrong, a solid 80 percent of my life is often comical. My family life can only be described as chaotic at best, I strongly believe in every statement I have ever made about epilepsy not defining anyone and I do always attempt to look on the bright side of life. Even in the “darker” blogs that describes both the mental and physical struggles epilepsy brings, I still attempt to look on the bright side. Today, I have made the executive decision ...

Raising a teen part four  As a child I loved watching the Waltons. I mean what not to love about a cute family, all living and working together, with the teens helping around the house and all saying goodnight to each other. It’s one of those shows that just fills you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. It also fills you with a false sense of reality and you start thinking having teenagers will be an amazing experience, full of family conversations, help around the house and of most importantly the opportunity to say “goodnight Jimbob” before you turn out the lights at night.  It’s all LIES! Whoever wrote that program had either eaten too many smarties or was having some sort of break from reality because the only warm,feeling raising a teen gives you is the one you get when you’ve pissed yourself because your bladder is weak and the teenager has scared you half to death screaming at his friends down some crappy plastic headset while simultaneously shooting people on a video ga...

If I had to put myself into the half full or half empty categories I would say I am most definitely in the half full camp. I believe in seeing the beauty in all things, finding the good in everyone and never leaving my house without a smile ...and lipstick.    Life is not an easy ride for anyone. We will ALL experience struggles and difficult times regardless of our health, jobs, marital status or financial situation. Some challenges are big, some are small, personally, I don’t believe the size of the challenge matters, I believe it is how we face, and overcome, the challenge that is most important. Epilepsy is a daily challenge. Some days are more difficult than others, some days bring physical pain and others emotional. Some days are easy to  handle,  and others could bring me to my knees in tears if I allowed them to. I don’t.    I choose to pull up my big girl pants, put a smile on my face and count my many blessings each day. Even on the days...

Equality and diversity have become the “buzz words” of education, especially over recent years as the OFSTED framework has evolved to place more emphasis on equality and diversity in all educational settings.    The underpinning principles of equality and diversity are fantastic. Not only should everyone be treated fairly but they should also be valued for their differences. Our differences are, after all, what make us individuals and should be celebrated. The problem is, many times the reality of equality and diversity falls short of the ideal. We create these excellent, well-written equality and diversity policies and we include excellent examples of differentiation on our lesson plans to show how much we value those that are “different” or have disabilities or additional needs, but that’s sometimes as far as it goes. The boxes are all checked, the T’s are crossed, and the I’s are dotted but the individuals who are the reason we can tick those boxes in the first place ...

Teaching. A challenging job with or without epilepsy. In all honesty my epilepsy doesn’t have much of an impact on my ability to teach. I have spent my life winging it and that’s pretty much what I do with my teaching career. There is a rare breed of teachers that have got all their shit together, are ready for September before the summer holidays have even started. I, however, am not one of those teachers. My planning is mostly in my head, I never have a pen and have only recently mastered the use of one drive. I do, however, care a great deal about my job and my students and will always do my best to help and support them.    My lack of  organisation , inability to use technology and consistent lack of stationary are not new traits brought on by epilepsy. They were there well before my diagnosis. They are, however, made worse by my epilepsy and the inevitable brain fog that tends to follow me around and is about as welcome in my life as the grim reaper is in a car...