Developing Epilepsy

 I have to take medicine like everyone else with epilepsy. 1 in the morning 2 at night. Sometimes it’s hard because I don’t remember to take it and my chance of having another seizure increases. I do regular things like everyone else but when I’m in the sun I have mini-seizures. It gets really annoying after a while because I can’t do much while having one, since I space out.

 I first began developing epilepsy when I was 8 years old. I was playing soccer, when in the middle of the field I started to have a mini seizure and no one knew what it was. One minute I was dribbling the ball down the soccer field, the next I was standing there waving my hand back and forth across my forehead.  No one could understand why I couldn't hear them yelling my name.  Then my Mom asked if I could hear her when I was "waving," but no, I  I couldn't.  I kept going to the doctor and 2 years later we found out that it was epilepsy but it wasn’t too bad so I did not take medicine.  Now it has developed a lot and since the first gran mal seizure I have been taking medicine 24-7 2 times a day and I’ve been getting better since.

 So epilepsy may be hard but there still are ways to help you manage your every day life.

An Epilepsy Story

Epilepsy:  STAND STRONG

Lots of people don’t know what epilepsy is, that’s why I decided to tell others about it.  Or, show them.

My name is Rileigh and I’m in 5^th grade. I had a seizure recently. All of my friends and people I didn’t even know were worried about me. The seizure happened at school during recess.  My principal came out with the nurse and brought a wheelchair.  They put me in it and I was brought inside. I couldn’t walk straight without assistance for three hours. Before I was picked up from school, but after the seizure I was blacked out for two minutes. First I started losing my balance, then I fell on my knees and my head started moving and wobbling back and forth back and forth, I couldn’t control it! Then, I blacked out.

Later on I came to school with a chain on my neck and it read: Rileigh Pena/Light –triggered Epilepsy. My friends and classmates wanted to know what it was and meant. A few days later my mom and I decided that I would tell my class what it was and what epilepsy is.

I came to school the next day and asked my teacher if in my free time I could tell the class about my epilepsy. She said yes and so I did, I told the class that epilepsy is a disorder that makes you space out for a time. But in my case I am light triggered so  whenever the sun is out at the same time I am, I will have a mini-seizure  which is when my hand goes back and forth across my  fore-head and I also space out.  My classmates asked lots of questions I was happy to answer.

Since then I have been trying to improve my mini-seizures and I have.  With the help of medication, now I can hear what other people are saying when I’m in the mini-seizure and can finish a sentence if I’m in the middle of one.

Even though I have epilepsy, I’m proud I have it and no matter what happens I can always help others in the same situation.