We all have our highs and lows in life. My story began 18 years ago, I was a five year old girl in my first year of school education. All started with a simple partial seizure, my hand raised up without intention, weakness flowed though my right side and followed pins and needles which as a child I called them "funny feelings". Since I was so young I didn't really understand much about it back then but I knew I was different and I embraced the fact I was beacuse who wants to be normal? I'd rather be different, like Dr Seuss says in one of his books "why fit in when your were born to stand out". Doctors giving me any medication they could think of. I felt like a test animal in a sense, It is all trial and error majority of it was error as only two anti- epileptic medications have ever worked for me in the past 18 years. A list of side effects. I was still a somewhat "normal" child, I still did all the things any other kid would. Throughout my childhood I used listening to music and writting my own music as my release from reality.
Throughout my teenage years and early twenties. I started understand more about Epilepsy. I went through my fair share of ups and downs. The past ten years have been a down hill ride apart of the roller coaster of life with epilepsy, but I have chosen to use my experiences and knowledge about this condtion for the greater good by fundraising since 2013 and puplic speaking (which I was afraid of) went out of my comfort zone to get the word out. I spoke arcoss New Zealand via telephone conference whilst working for the Ministry of Health in disability support services in the New Zealand's government. I have accepted the fact that Epilepsy is apart of me. My parents, family, close friends and long time boyfriend of almost three years have been there as my number one supporters and encourge me to follow my dreams to become an counsellor which I will be pursing next year. Epilepsy doesn't own me but yes it can stop me from doing certain things like driving but I prefer to use public transport as I live in a big city. As I like to say epileptic seizures come around like an unwanted guest doesn't matter what time or day it is. After a long time I feel normal my epilepsy and side effects have minimised I still go through patterns were my seizures will be more frequent and then go without for days, weeks or months it's my normal. In present time, I've travelled the world lived overseas, These things I probably wouldn't of been able to do if I was still on a downward spiral with my epilepsy. My goal not only for Epilepsy awareness month but in life in general is to help as many people out there, not matter their situation. Make a difference in their lives.
In conclusion my life with epilepsy has been a roller coaster ride filled with highs and lows. Everyone experiences it at some point in their lives, knowing that there are people out there who will stand by you and support you through it. Remember you aren't alone in this. Things do get better.
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