On this page, I am going to share some of the stories of my seizures. I
want to include these, so you can have an idea of how life is with
seizures. Well, at least how MY life is with seizures. I have chosen to
not let seizures hold me back much. I will not share ALL of the stories
of my seizures, because I do not remember all of them, but I will share
quite a few.
The First
The first seizure I ever had was when I was in about 5th grade. I was
at school, and I had finished my work for the day, and was on the
computer. The computer was very old, and the screen would mess up
sometimes, and get a bunch of black and white flashing dots on it. I
was sitting there at the computer, and all of a sudden, I was just
staring, and couldn't do anything. I was scared, because I didn't know
what was happening, or how to stop it. I ended up falling out of the
chair, and then the seizure ended. I was very embarrassed, because I
didn't know what had happened. This is the only Petit Mal, or absence
seizure I ever had, to my knowledge. The rest were all Gran Mal
(Tonic-Clonic).
The First Tonic-Clonic
The first Tonic-Clonic (Gran Mal) seizure
I had was in about 7th grade, also when I was at school. I was on
recess, and we were outside playing basketball. The only thing I
remember from this one is that one minute I was playing basketball with
my friends, and "the next minute" I was in an ambulance. I was not hurt
bad, but I was very scared again. I had no clue what was going on, and
didn't know where I was. I didn't know what had happened, or why I was
strapped down with a nasal canula in my nose with oxygen blowing in. I
was a little bit sore from hitting my head when I fell, but other than
that, I was fine. This started the long process of trying to figure out
a medicine that would keep me from having any in the future.
(The next stories won't necessarily be in any kind of chronological order, because I don't necessarily remember the order of them. They are just my stories to help others identify.)
While Riding my ATV
This story took place while I was somewhat alone, in that I was not with anyone I knew. I had purchased an ATV with some money my Grandpa had given me at his death (I've since sold it to pay medical bills), and my brother would take me and my ATV to a dry stream near the house and drop me off. I would ride for a few hours, and when I was done, I would call my brother with my cell phone, and he would come pick me up. On this particular day, I had been riding about an hour, and had found a place where there was water. What guy doesn't want to add a little excitement. So I rode into the water, not realizing how deep it was. My ATV got stuck, and when I stepped off to get it unstuck, I submerged my phone in the water, effectively ruining it. I got my ATV unstuck, and couldn't do anything about my phone being ruined at that point, so I figured I'd keep riding and worry about that later. I rode for another hour or so, and then saw some guys up on the bank doing some jumps. I went up and asked if I could join them. They obliged, so I rode with them for a little while. Then I asked if I could borrow a phone to call my brother. I stepped off my ATV, called my brother, and returned the phone. Just after I put my helmet back on, but before I got back on my ATV, I had a tonic clonic seizure, and landed face down in gravel. The guys I was with called the ambulance, and my brother, and it worked out fine. I've kept the face shield from that helmet to this day, because had I not had the helmet on, my face would have been VERY torn up from landing face down in the gravel, and being face down through the seizure. This is just one of the times where I look at the circumstances and know God must have been protecting me. If I hadn't had that helmet on, if I hadn't been with people, if I had still been standing in that water from earlier...things would have been very different.
While Driving
Yes...that's right, I had a seizure while at the wheel. I was in my pickup truck, driving from one place to another, and suddenly woke up in a hospital. I do not recall anything that went on before my seizure, except that I had been driving. This is where this story gets crazy. I was not injured at all from the seizure. I had been wearing my seat belt, as I always do. At some point, before I had the seizure, I pulled my truck into a parking lot, turned it off and put it in park. I do not remember doing any of this, so the only explanation I can give for this is that God must have taken over, and helped me out somehow, because I have no warning when I am going to have a seizure. When I went back with my brother to get my truck, we talked to the guys at the car shop where I had parked my truck. They said I pulled in, stopped and then had the seizure. They called the ambulance, and that is how I ended up in the hospital. As I said before, I have no explanation for it, except that God was there protecting me, because I would not have known to pull my truck over and stop on my own. I am very grateful that I was stopped when I had the seizure, as I could have seriously hurt someone else, and myself had I been still driving.
My Baby
Just recently, I had one of, if not the scariest experience of my life. I was at home with my baby, and she was playing in the kitchen. As she walked around, she suddenly stopped, started crying and then fell down on the floor. She was having a tonic clonic seizure. Fortunately she was laying on her stomach with her head to the side, so I didn't have to move her at all. I called my wife at work, then called 911 (whether that was the correct order or not, it doesn't matter, because it's done). The seizure lasted about 2 minutes, after which she woke up screaming. The first responders got there in about 9 minutes, and my wife got there from work just after that. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later. The whole time my baby was crying. Oh...I forgot to mention how old she was. This was 2 days before her first birthday. So she now had an ambulance ride, and then 4 hours in the ER, where they did a CT scan and blood work. The results of the CT scan and the blood work all came back normal. She doesn't have a tumor, it was not a febrile seizure and needs further tests to see what caused the seizure. Hopefully the tests will come back clear, and it will have been a one time freak accident.
More Coming Soon...
