If you see someone having a seizure, make sure there’s nothing for them to hit their head on. Then just let it go.
The only time you are supposed to put your hands on someone having a seizure is if they are in water, like a pool or lake. Then you want to hold on to them so they won’t drown.
Don’t steal the person’s wallet when they are unconscious. While the seizure will stop, the person will still be out of it for a while.
Then you jump up and yell, “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! DEMONS, I CAST THEE OUT!”.
So far, no one has yelled that at me.
When I was 15 I rolled out of bed in the middle of the night, hit my head and had a seizure. Luckily, my cousin was in the room. I was taken to the hospital in the morning and after a ton of tests they said I had a seizure disorder. They put me on Dilantin. They said I would have to take it for at least 2 years, possibly for life.
I only ever had seizures if I didn’t take my full dose of meds for 2 or 3 days in a row. I don’t have any memory of the actual seizures, but I’ll never forget the mornings after. It was like the pain you get from working out too hard – times 10, and in every muscle in my body. I could barely lift my head.
When I was 32, I went to my doctor and told him that I hadn’t had a seizure in 6 or 7 years, could I possibly be done with Dilantin? He said to stop taking it and see what happens. Nothing did. I had a headache for a couple days but that was it.
According to my wife, whom I met when I was 28, my personality is much different without the Dilantin.
Pregnancy didn’t affect my epilepsy at all - though I was warned not to try breastfeeding because of the levels of drugs in my system. The biggest pain was self-righteous people telling me that I was irresponsible to have a baby - they seemed to think that she’d be mentally handicapped, somehow.
I had talked about this BS with my doctor, who said that, since my epilepsy was caused by severe head trauma, my daughter was no more likely to have epilepsy than the rest of the population, but, partly due to this sort of bigotry, my first marriage only lasted another 8 months after the baby was born. She was perfectly OK, by the way.
This has actually happened to me a couple of times. I have also been sexually assaulted when I was unconscious. Peopl who take advantage like this are the dregs of humanity, IMO.
My son had febrile seizures (grand mal seizures whenever he had a fever from an illness) from age 9 months - 5 years old, which he seemed to outgrow. Until last year at age 13 when he had a seizure in his sleep (and no accompanying fever). I have heard that sometimes there is onset of a seizure disorder at adolescence. I do wonder if he’s had other seizures at night that we don’t know about. Is it common for some people with epilepsy to mostly have seizures at night while they’re asleep?
My son had febrile seizures (grand mal seizures whenever he had a fever from an illness) from age 9 months - 5 years old, which he seemed to outgrow. Until last year at age 13 when he had a seizure in his sleep (and no accompanying fever). I have heard that sometimes there is onset of a seizure disorder at adolescence. I do wonder if he’s had other seizures at night that we don’t know about. Is it common for some people with epilepsy to mostly have seizures at night while they’re asleep?
I worry about him suffocating with his face in his pillow after a seizure, because he really passes out. I also worry a little about him sleeping on the top bunk when he’s at camp.
There are safety pillows you can buy if you’re worried. I’m not sure what the deal with them is.
My nocturnal seizures are pretty mild I think. I’ve never really hurt myself except for a tongue bite. I think I hit my head getting out of bed when I was somewhat out of it. I usually wake up feeling very sick to my stomach. That goes away in an hour or two and then I’m more or less back to normal. Mine tend to be connected to poor sleep habits.
My latest bump in medication has stopped them so far.
I’m definitely more likely to have a seizure if I haven’t slept properly. Strobe lights don’t seem to trigger them, though they drive me nuts. I did use that as an excuse to skip the trip to the disco in Florence when I went to Europe with my class in high school so I have found at least a few benefits to having epilepsy.
-Lil