On the road again...

...just four days before the end of this journey. I have attempted to show you the surrounding landscape as I travel with epilepsy, my ever present, and not entirely welcome, companion.

When the destination is reached on the evening of March 31st, you will go your way, I and my travel companion will continue our journey. My road, and the roads of my fellows with this condition will have a few different potholes in it than those of yours, but they often are merely potholes, and not necessarily caverns to be lost in. Very unfortunately, there are times when such potholes do create devastating and life changing events for some of my fellow travellers.

The sky is most often blue, somedays cloudy, some days clear and open. There may or may not be days full of stormy weather. Making sure I am behind the wheel driving my life allows epilepsy to be only a passenger, rather than a wild, untrained driver (dare I say teenager?).

I only ask that this passenger be as silent and unobtrusive as possible.

I visit my doctor to ensure correct medication. I go to the lab to get blood tests to ensure a 'therapeutic' dose of my medication is present within me. I balance work and play to the best of my ability. And laughter - the best medicine - underscores it all.

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever 

the same.  Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

 ~ Don Williams, Jr.

Author's note: Edited with an amendment below - July 28, 2024

Amendment to the last paragraph of this essay: In my recent visits to my family practitioner and to my neurologist, both lab tests and EEG's have been declined due to my lack of witnessed seizure activity. This only enhanced my questions about the veracity of the initial diagnosis of epilepsy. That being said, I have had significant breakthrough seizures at 10 (still on 2 medications) and 11 years (on no medications) seizure free time that have convinced me otherwise.