Overcoming Epilepsy With Motivation

One late evening in November 1979, I was thirteen years old. I was babysitting a small baby. Back then I was a babysitter on weekends to earn extra money. I even went as far as to take classes and get a certificate in my hometown. I remember it was somewhere around 1-2am. The baby was laying on my bed sleep. I was trying to wait for her mother who was out that night at the local club. She usually came to pick the baby up around 2ish because that was when the club closed. My mother was in her bedroom next to mine. I cannot tell you what I was doing. I just remember falling. The next thing I remember was waking up with my grandmother staring down at me. I didn’t recognize my surroundings – I just knew it was not my room or our apartment. It turns out that I was in an ambulance. You see, I never been inside an ambulance before. I had never been to the hospital because I was rarely sick with even a cold. I was an athlete back then and was very active. It turned out that I had a grand mal seizure. It was the first time ever! I was hospitalized for a week. I was diagnosed with epilepsy. After leaving the hospital, I was on various medications. Most times I was on several at one time as they were experimenting which combination would work. I even had to cut some meds in half. If they had pill cutters back then, we didn’t have one. I was having multiple seizures in a month. I recall being in middle school and falling down the stairs because the combination of medicines I was taking caused me to be dizzy and seeing triple. My friends literally thought I was high. I was popular, so the assumption was I was doing marijuana or some other type of drug. I had never even smoked a cigarette in my life. I had to be out of school for quite some time to make sure I was stabilized. Why am I telling this story? This is about motivation! First, those people who have epilepsy must understand it CAN get better. Also, that it doesn’t have to take over your life. I have always been an athlete and a very social person. It got me down for a while. I was very depressed. I was embarrassed because there were quite a few times when I’d get sick in front of friends. My friends were great. They never teased me. They treated me no differently than before I was diagnosed. I finally got to the point where I said enough is enough!!!! I picked myself up and I fought. I decided I was not going to give up and let it take over my life. I was too young, and I had too much to do in my life and I refused to let it stop me. Since then, I continued to participate in sports in middle and high school, a men’s industrial league and college! I have graduated from Lord Fairfax Community College and Shenandoah University. I delivered two of my own children and made it through the pregnancies. They do not have epilepsy praise God! I have been driving since I was about 21. I have had a successful career for over 20 years in my chosen field. And I have saved the best for last – instead of having multiple seizures every month, I now go years without 1 seizure. I haven’t had a seizure in 5 years!!!! I give all the glory to God.