SORRY

Sorry for not posting over the past few days.  Yesterday morning I suffered another epileptic attack whilst I was home alone another grand  mal (or tonic clonic as it is now known)- first thing in the morning again but that is par for the course.

In the greater scheme of things it was not as severe as they have been of late and it is about two years again since I had the last attack.  So I am taking it as a warning side that my system is not coping too well at the moment. 

After any fit I tend to sleep - my body hurts from the shaking that occurs to the body during said episode when the bodies muscles lock up as if paralysed.  I am usually very head-achey and disorientated.

On Wednesday night for our tea we had had a very mild curry.  It has been an age since we had one.  It was home cooked and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Only trouble was when I got to bed I could not sleep and then had an episode with the acid reflux/hernia where I was violently ill all night and did not get comfy or any sleep.  I think this may well have been the main trigger in this recent episode.

In the past when I have been short on sleep I have ended up being poorly and so I am putting down this episode to the fact I did not get any rest/sleep time.

I think I had the attack about 10ish and then was out until about 11:30am.  Whereupon I managed to let OH know what was going on and just went back to sleep.  Its the best thing to let the body heal by sleeping and resting.  You heal better when you sleep.

Its upsetting when things like that happen as I do my best to look after myself.  Sometimes the trigger is not nerves but temperature as well and there are a couple of other scenarios which come into play as well.

May I just ask that if you ever come across a person who is suffering from an epileptic attack that you do the following.

Paramount - make sure they are safe and cannot hurt themselves.  If they are in a position to cause harm do not hold them down but try and shift them from where they are - but be aware sometimes this is not possible.   

If you try and hold them down then they will sense it and fight you.  

Similarly never ever put your fingers in their mouth as you will not have any fingers left.  I nearly always bite my tongue.  

Once they stop thrashing around make sure that they are in the recovery position and cannot swallow their tongue this in effect means popping them on their side with their hands to the side not on the back or in  a position where they could swallow their tongue.  Talk to them gently about anything and everything.  This can be very soothing and lets them know that they are not on their own.  

Often when coming round I am not with it and can be more lucid at one time than another.  More often or not I am in and out of sleep as the body rests from the shock.  The aches and pains afterwards are horrible.

Call an Ambulance to get them checked out.  

In effect epilepsy is a freak electrical circuit that courses through the body and literally "short circuits" it. When I was a child, before this official language was in use my family always referred to it as "Switching off".

Epilepsy can happen to anyone (no one is excluded its just that some are luckier than others) and in fact mine can be tracked back to when I was seven years of age when I started with the absences which were known as petit mal. Basically the person can be looking straight at you as if listening to a conversation but in fact is not there as though they are day dreaming.  They do not hear what you say.  I started doing this when combing my hair in the mirror -  the light used to distract me.  I am light sensitive and can see light through closed eyelids.

I was taken to my GP who referred me to the hospital.  In those days you had to see a Child Psychiatrist and he confirmed that it was indeed the petit mal I had.    I was then left untreated by the GP for six months who would not have it that it was indeed epilepsy that I had.  Dad put in a complaint.

Funnily enough I started off with the absences after some booster injections for Whooping cough, Diptheria and Polio.  Mum was always terrified that we would end up with Whooping cough when the little girl next door got it.  So we were taken off to the GP.  We cannot prove it but apparently I started the absences within a two week period of the boosters.

I was eventually told by the Consultant  that I would grow out of it and in effect in my case I did not.  They gave me some medication that worked the wrong way round when I was fifteen (a new medication to me) and it ended up triggering the grand mals every couple of years or so.  I was for a period of about 10 years not on medication at all but then the other year it started off again.  I think once you have it that is it, as even though I do not have brain damage (according to the Doctors) each time I have a fit it scars the brain that little bit more and indeed when sustaining such an episode the fit will track along the least point of resistance.  Being witness to such a fit can be extremely frightening more so for the onlooker than to the person it is happening too as they are not aware at all.

These days people are more accepting than they were when I was growing up.  I had a "best friend" in the village where I lived and on finding out that I had epilepsy her mother checked out with a relative whether I was a suitable person for her daughter to be friends with.  The nurse advised her to keep her daughter away from me.  Not only did I have the upset of "losing" a really good friend through prejudice but I also had to cope with the demands the condition put upon my system which were very varied.  This left me very isolated at school, not that I have ever been an "in your face" type of person anyway being reasonably shy.  

Unfortunately the Doctors are very good at helping in diagnosing conditions but they cannot always help us in learning to live with the same and that is often the lesson.  If and when you should ever be in a position to help or assist a person sustaining such an attack I hope the above will help you and think to yourself "there but for the grace of god go I".  If you would like further explanation of what epilepsy is there is a link here: Epilepsy.  

Thank you for reading this.

Take care

Pattypan

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