Dear Stacey,
I have simple partial seizures. Sometimes they are borderline complex partial. Medication has not totally controlled my seizures and I am not a candidate for epilepsy surgery. My medication reduces my seizures from fifty to sixty seizures a day to seven to twelve a day. I had my first seizure at age forty-two. I am now age forty-seven. The doctors do not know why my seizures began. I have had many tests, but no answers. I still hope one-day new research will produce a new medicine that will give me freedom from seizures.
I face the challenge of dealing with my epilepsy in many ways. Number one is through prayer. Secondly, I use every chance to educate someone about the subject of epilepsy or seizures. I often find out that many people are surprised that I do not fall onto the floor or violently shake when I have a seizure. They are not aware that there is more than one type of epilepsy. They wrote me once up in a newspaper article for our local paper and I was featured in an article about epilepsy for Women’s Day magazine. Epilepsy still unfortunately, has many stigmas and until we can talk about it freely and educate the public, many of those stigmas will remain. A doctor or counselor can talk about it all day. You and I are the people who live with it and should explain to the public what it really feels like.
I believe this person has also realized that epilepsy is beginning to come out into the open, but there is still a lot of work to be done in educating the public on epilepsy. When I read this letter, I felt very proud of her because she used what she had to help others. She reached out so others could understand what the disorder is. By following her goals and dreams, she was able to pursue her life and not let epilepsy stand in her way.
