My Story

My name is Shelby and I wasnt diagnosed with epilepsy until after the birth of my son almost a year ago. I was 17 when i had Alex. I had a normal birth and there were no apparent complications. When he was 3 days old, I lost feeling in my left arm and had tingling in the left side of my body. I went to the er, they told me it was a pinched nerve, and sent me home. The next morning i had a 15 minute long tonic-clonic seizure and had no control of my left side after it was over. I was taken to the er again. They did a ct scan and two mris (one with dye and one without) and found 3 ruptured blood vessels and a clot. It was devastating and horrifying being told that id had a stroke so young and just days after the birth of my baby boy. I was scared he was going to have to grow up without a mom. Im blessed to say that i was able to walk again and control that side of my body within a week, was moved out of icu within 3 days, and was out of the hospital in under a month. They left me on Keppra for a few months as a precaution. About a week after they weaned me off I had another seizure in school. They sent me back to the hospital and i stayed over night. The next afternoon i had an eeg and they diagnosed me with epilepsy. I still zone out ALL THE TIME and occasionally pass out in class after about 30 minutes of numbness and random symptoms like blurred vision and muscle weakness even though Im on keppra and clonazepam. It interferes a lot with my attendance and my relationship with my fiance. He stays depressed because of all thats happened since our son was born and hes worse when i get sick. On the brightside, I still make decent grades and am able to take care of my little boy for the most part.