Hey steemians, steem people, and friends. I wanted to talk about my epilepsy experience.
I was diagnosed with epilepsy, uncontrolled seizures in 2013. It has been a long hard road. There are many different types of seizures and can be different for everyone,.. The ones everyone seems to hear about is tonic clonic (loss of consciousness) . And absence seizures to name a few. Mine are these two, I had my first one back in 2013 went to the hospital and got checked out. The next one was a bigger tonic, needing an ambulance. I came out of that one about 20 mins later. I was in pain, and confused. That is when they started me on medication. I had a few more smaller ones, then in 2015 I had a huge one that turned into a status epilepticus, (can very easily die if it cant be stopped!) I seized for eight hours, and spent 3 days in the ICU. When I woke up from that one I was confused, angry, and could only speak gibberish. It took me one month to be able to write normal and speak better than I was. The doctors were able to see it started in the right temporal lobe of my brain, which effects emotions, speech, and memory,. Im sure if anyone you know has epilepsy has also had an EEG. It is a test using electrodes glued to your head to measure brain waves. Generally they are about thirty minutes which isnt that good for doctors seeing as how it only captures 30 minutes. So recently my doctor had me take an ambulatory EEG,. Thats the same thing, however you take it home with you and have it on for 24-72 hours,. Luckily mine was only 24.
This is after I left the hospital (I look so happy haha) I have 23 wires attached all onto my head, then they politely wrapped me up like a mummy as to not have the electrodes disconnect.
This is my pack I had to carry its like a small fanny pack, recording the brainwaves. Also that white "rope" contains the 23 wires on my head leading into the recorder pack.
I was a little shocked to know I had to have a camera on me haha! It was like icing on a cake for the doctors, If they were able to read a seizure, they can go back and see if I was ok or noticed. Twenty four hours later I was able to go back to get the wires off (thank God i was so happy) I suggest everyone informs themselves on epilepsy. Notice the signs, what to do and what NOT to do, one common thought being the wallet in mouth, not true and could possibly make it worse. Educate, learn, and pass it on! Thank you for letting me tell my experience! Have a good night friends!
-Ryan