Epilepsy

As the great majority of you already know, my dad has suffered from increasingly debilitating epilepsy since he was a young teenager. Unfortunately, he is one of the unlucky one-third that has not been able to be managed by medication. I’ve lost track of the number of pills that he takes (I think only my mom really knows), but he still has seizures daily. More than once, these seizures have sent him to the emergency room.

I was so happy to see that epilepsy made the cover of Newsweek this week and I recommend that you each pick up a copy (or check it out online or at your local library). I haven’t read all of the articles in it, but the one I did read, and which is contained in the link below, was fantastic. It’s so important to bring the issues that come along with epilepsy into the public eye. It’s pitiful that there is so little public attention for a condition that “is as common as breast cancer, and takes as many lives.” Another interesting statistic: “There are 200,000 new cases each year, and a total of more than 3 million Americans are affected by it—more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease combined.”

Not only is the lack of public information concerning, but the misinformation about and stigma attached to those who have epilepsy is disturbing, as well.  For example, unlike popular myth, never shove anything into the mouth of a person who is having a seizure.  They’re far more likely to choke on the foreign object than their own tongue.  In fact, it’s impossible for them to swallow their own tongue.

For those who haven’t known or cared about someone with epilepsy, it’s hard for you to know what it is like. It’s scary and worrisome and your heart aches for them. While you feel helpless yourself at your own inability to do anything to help your loved one, you have to also imagine the helplessness that they must feel (knowing that a seizure could strike at any moment and that they are unable to do anything to stop it). I just ask that you take a moment of your day to read the following article:

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.