Some Final Words about Epilepsy

Epilepsy is not a final blow to one’s self
It can be a building block for developing one’s self.

Accepting the presence of this disorder,
allows work and play despite changes and challenges.

Accepting boundaries and limits set by this disorder
defines actions for healthy living.

Epilepsy can be fatal, destructive and tear down lives,
    but not necessarily:

Some historical figures with epilepsy are:
Alexander the Great (356-323BC)
Aristotle (384BC-322BC)
Alfred the Great (849-899)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)
Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896)
Edgar Allen Poe (1809 - 1849)
Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881)
Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898)
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)
Bud Abbott (1895 - 1974)
Richard Burton 1925 - 1084)

“I want people with epilepsy to know that there are ways 

in which they can play a role in their own recovery. 

It’s all in how they approach what is happening and 

how they can use that as a catalyst for their growth. 

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that people are 

willing to embrace you if you share your story.”

~ Danny Glover 

(diagnosed with epilepsy as a child but grew out of it.)

The Challenge Came Later

“You have epilepsy. This diagnosis was not tossed down like it was a challenge and I didn't hear it as such. My memory of that day in 1967 - or was it late 1966 - is that I was sitting on a stretcher, a hospital gown on, Dr. McDougall standing in front of me in his white doctor’s coat to deliver this information to me. Is this an accurate image in my memory? I have no idea. Unfamiliar post-ictal haziness didn't register much. Epilepsy merely became something outside of me ~ that had nothing to do with me. A seizure, when I had one, was epilepsy's only indication of it's presence. And I didn’t see any seizure. I could only feel the after effects. I couldn’t even see the effects on my family.

The challenge came from the outside, but not until 1978, ten years later.It came from the successes of others with a different disease. I grabbed it like a dare in a school yard game.....if you can get better, so can I. So there. 

Do I still have epilepsy? Definitely ~ and I have the Electroencephalogram (EEG) from last year to prove it. But over fourteen years have passed since my last grand-mal seizure (tonic clonic in today's clinical terms).  Does epilepsy affect my life. Definitely. In the boundaries and organization of my life ~ and life is pretty darn good.

Repost from 30Mar2013 - The Fit of the Shoe

I was out late tonight at Hermann's Jazz Club so, logically, am late posting my blog. This is a repost with a couple of tiny edits.

"Walking a mile in another person’s shoes is a lovely aphorism for empathy. In this world of complexity and details, technology, religious dogma and secularism, it is not that easy to figure out what kind of shoes each of us wears. Only that each of us has shoes - or not!

After listening to the various stories about the epilepsy of others, and the families that support them, deciding to pay attention to the fit of my own shoes seems important. Then whether I have a mile or only a step to walk, I can be as successful as possible and better able to share what I have learned with anyone who may wish to ask.

This doesn’t mean that all of those ‘others’ are ignored, but that decisions they make and actions they take can be respected. The ‘shoes’ they wear will have a different fit than mine."

“One must know oneself.  If this does not serve to discover truth, 

it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.”

~ Blaise Pascal