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Eric's Epilepsy
Mon, 11/28/2016 - 02:17Topic: Share Your Story
I am a 35 year old male with epilepsy. I had my first seizure at age 2 or 3. A seizure, which forced me to be transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, NE. We tried numerous doctors and medications, and got nowhere. We finally ended up at The Children's Hospital of Denver, Colorado. I was in their Neurology Program until I turned 18, and then I was forced to transition to an Adult Epilepsy Specialist.
I have a vagus nerve stimulator. With that and a combination of Carbatrol and Topamax, I have been seizure free for close to a year. However, I have a sister who is resistant to me doing anthing on my own, like going to college, or getting a full-time job in another town. She says that my mom and her would be getting phone calls, and they would running to "whereever", picking me up off the floor. The only thing she can see is me sitting in the basement, working a part-time job, that barely gives me spending money. Drawing Social Security, which doesn't cover my health insurance. Paying for her mistakes.
Without a minimum of a 2 year degree, I am not going to move up the ladder. The bottom line is that I am not keeping up with the rest of the people I graduated with
I wouldn't listen to your
Submitted by freak on Tue, 2017-07-04 - 20:30
I wouldn't listen to your mother or sister. There are a lot of ableist in the world who feel the need to push you behind and crush your dreams so they can look back and say, "see." I didn't get an AA until I was 38. My mother fought me all the way saying, "you'll never finish college." I have one year of business school to finish, then I'll have a Bachelors. I'm only proud of the education I have achieved thus far, because it was difficult to do so through seizures. I cannot go back in time and get back those years I allowed myself to be oppressed. Considering the kind of prejudice I faced, I did better than my peers would've done if they faced such prejudice. In fact my sister has never even achieved an AA, and she's "normal".