Tag: Seizures

A friend in need
Blog · Dealing with epilepsy · Way too personal

A friend in need

Codrin PO

In my first years with epilepsy, I was scared of telling anyone about it. That’s because I was diagnosed at 14. It’s hard enough for an introvert to make friends and adding the image that epilepsy gets in society would have made it worse. In my early years, I didn’t have too many seizures and they happened at home.

Going to university, I had my first public seizure – right before taking one of my first exams. I would have preferred honestly to take the exam instead. In university, I had good friends that knew and understood me. I realized that there are people out there that actually look at the person and not at the disorder. That was good. Not teenagers, but still not adult persons (between 18-24) aren’t judgemental, it seems.

Continue reading “A friend in need” →
Blog · Dealing with epilepsy · Way too personal

Is it fear or lack of respect that you see the most?

Codrin PO

I was speaking with one of those Facebook friends that you never met the other way. She also has a very specific disorder, although not epilepsy, but close to the spectrum.

When asking what she hates the most about her condition, she said “the way the others perceive her”. Thinking about epilepsy, how do friends and acquintances see you and what do you hate about it? I saw in the eyes of people that know about my epilepsy many things, but two stick out:

  1. Fear – people fear that you’ll have a seizure anytime, anywhere. But the fear is not that you’ll get hurt, but that they won’t be able to handle what is happening.
  2. Lack of respect – there are many myths about epilepsy (see my past articles) and many people believe them. Many people think that we are all photosensitive, or that we inherited it, or that we have a smaller IQ because of it. The last one is the one I saw many times, regardless of saying to people that Caesar, Dostoyevski, Agatha Christie, Alfred Nobel, Van Gogh and Theodore Rosevelt (among many others) had it.
Dealing with epilepsy · Way too personal

Vacationing with epilepsy

Codrin PO

A couple of weeks ago, I went on vacation, a real vacation with the family in Greece just to relax and enjoy the sun. Going beyond the sunstroke (which was entirely my fault because I thought I didn’t need sun cream as I have a strong pigment and I get darker easily without being affected by the sun), a problem was that I had a seizure.

We stayed in a five-star resort with several buildings, each with 5-to-10 rooms and two floors (ground + first level). We stayed at the first floor in one of the building.
Moving on, with a 2-year old baby, we had a baby stroller that we needed to get up and down the stairs several times a day. One of these days, when getting ready to get it down the stairs, I had a seizure right on top, a person with epilepsy’s worst nightmare: falling down the stairs. Continue reading “Vacationing with epilepsy” →

Dealing with epilepsy

Wishing to have a seizure is interesting

Codrin PO

Back during my Bachelor studies, I had to seizures in the first semester: one in the IT lab and the other before my applied math exam. I think I already wrote about them, but anyway… I had two more colleagues (from a different specialization) who also had epilepsy and seizures in that first semester.

One of the things I realized is that some people are using their seizures to get their way through life. I witnessed someone faking a seizure (the aura part anyway) in order to pass an exam. Easy to say she passed the exam.

But, after discussions on epilepsy forums, I realized some people actually wish sometimes to have a seizure. I was curious why so I “studied” myself before and after a seizure. Continue reading “Wishing to have a seizure is interesting” →

Blog · Dealing with epilepsy

How I avoided seizures

Codrin PO

August 5th was an “interesting” day. I went on vacation with the family back home in Romania for about 1 month. You can take a month off when you are unemployed.

The first thing that we had to do is a passport for the baby. With some help from friends and family, we had a quick appointment at the passports service.

Immediately after this, I had a feeling. I started shivering, getting dizzy and it was difficult to stay on my feet. I took control back and avoided a seizure. I mentioned this in another article. It was a simple breathing and relaxation exercise. Continue reading “How I avoided seizures” →