bathing

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Hey guys, I just want to post a little caution notice for you. For the past 3 years, I've been dating a man who has two children (I'm not a teen, obviously). His daughter had epilepsy, and she was 14 last year. She was a wonderful person - kind, caring, outgoing, funny. Everyone who knew her wanted to be more like her - or wanted their kids to be more like her. :-) Last year, for the first time since I've known her, and apparently the first time in years, she took a bath. Alone. It didn't help that she had forgotten to take her medicine. She had a seizure in the bathtub, and drowned. This was not at our house, so don't ask me why I let her take a bath. I didn't. She always took showers at her dad's house. But I want you guys to know, if you don't already, that even though you are older, and things like baths seem so innocent, that you really have to be careful. Take showers. Sing in the shower so people know you're OK. Just come up with something that works for you. Hopefully you already know this. But just in case. There it is. This is Marieke: www.mariekedouridas.org

Comments

Re: bathing

Submitted by Sophs64833 on Wed, 2007-04-18 - 07:08

Wow, that's really sad. I hope you guys are coping with her death. I'm sure she was a really great person. I already know not to take baths much because my neurologist said not to. Though I do anyway because people don't call me stubborn for nothing.Haha.. I don't think I'll start singing in the shower anytime soon. Thanks for the heads up for people who don't know this. Yeah, it's quite dangerous.

Re: Re: bathing

Submitted by pan06 on Sun, 2007-07-22 - 23:07

Hey I was shaving my legs one day and I was sitting on the side of the tub. I had a seizure and the bath nozzle is the only thing that held me up and kept me from drowning. My mother did not hear anything wrong. My dog kept walking back and forth from the living room to the bathroom whining. So my mother opened the door and saw me having a patial complex seizure. I can say my dog is the one that saved my life telling my mom about what was wrong. Since then, (it is kind of crazy) my dog will paw at the door to get in the bathroom when I take my shower. She is always in the bathroom when I am in there. Needless to say, my mother will not let me take a bath anymore, unless the door is open. THANK GOD FOR DOGS!!!!

Re: Re: Re: bathing

Submitted by ACopper on Sun, 2007-07-22 - 23:34

I am so glad your dog and your mother take such good care of you! I have had two cats who lay beside me after a grand mal, so I woke up with a warm body and purring each time. It was sooo comforting, sometimes I would cry and hug them close, even when I could not remember my name or think through why I was lying on the floor. I will tell you that I only take showers and let the water drain away, so if I fall, I won't be lying face down in water. If your shower is not draining the water completely away, the drain needs to be cleaned for sure. I got a long skinny brush (for plastic straws) and clean the hair out of the drain once a week. I also use only really light soaps and conditioners to prevent clogging and slippery bathtub floors. It also helps to have 100% rubber bath mats, and grab bars at a higher level than the bathtub, and even at angles, so if one loses one's balance while standing and the seizure medication slows your reaction time, you can grab at something to prevent a completely uncontrolled fall. It also helps to have guardrails on steps (both sides) and indoor/outdoor rugs on any concrete (better than a helmet any day) in case one falls. I had grand mal seizures for decades before I finally found a longlasting medication that helped. I once had a security guard see that I was seizing and falling into the path of a transit bus (tons). She had a husband with seizures, so she recognized the blank look cross my face, grabbed the hair on the back of my head and pulled me back just in the nick of time. She said the bus driver was downright hysterical; there was no way he could have stopped in time. I learned that when I had felt the hint of a seizure, to sit down right where I was before I blacked out without an aura/warning. Ha! Now that my seizures are controlled, life is almost boring. Almost. Everybody: Keep taking your seizure medications, and take them regularly throughout the day, because one seizure can cause brain damage so that with each seizure, your condition will get a little more and more worse, until you are having grand mals. DO NOT EVER stop taking your medication all at once. If you are not having seizures, it is because of your medication, NOT because you don't need it. I have had two friends who have died because they thought they were okay and stopped taking their seizure medications all at once, completely, and went into status epilepticus and died before anyone could get help.