Helen’s Story
My name is Helen. I am a survivor of a cerebral hemorrhage and three strokes. My first seizure occurred when I was in the hospital and I was told by the medical staff that I have epilepsy due to the damage from the blood clot that ruptured in my brain. For over 20 years now, I've gone through the experiences of chewing my tongue, wetting my clothes, losing consciousness, and having grand mal seizures. I've been on just about every medication they have on the market. Some have been good for me. Some have not.
I was working on my undergraduate degree when I first became ill. And I'll never forget when a teacher told me, "How are you going to be a teacher when you have seizures? What are you going to do, have a seizure in the classroom?" It hurt so much. But since then I have graduated with my second Master's degree and I currently hold a position as an administrator in a middle school. And yes, I do have my seizures. I hid this for a very long time because I was afraid of the feelings I would get from everyone once they knew I have epilepsy. But it didn't stop me and it can't stop you. Let it help you strive harder toward achieving your goal. I just want to say that living with epilepsy is the best thing that could happen to me because it's changed my outlook on everything.
In terms of making sure you stay in tune with your own health and your health care, it's very, very important that you are specific about what it is you want your doctors to do for you. They work for you and they can only do what you let them know about. It takes a lot of paying attention to what is either written on your prescriptions or just what you notice that's different about your body. Telling your doctors is the key factor to the best care for your treatment of epilepsy.
