LouiseNaomi Fox, EO Co-op Placement Student from Thornlea Secondary School
About 21 years ago, a young girl "Louise" was hit by a car. She survived the accident but did not recover as her old self. She awoke from a coma with brain damage and because of this, she had a tonic-clonic seizure. Louise has epilepsy. The smart, fun-loving, energetic, young lady everyone knew was gone. She turned into a scared, attention-seeking girl who experienced seizures on a regular basis. Trying to find an antiepileptic drug that she would not react poorly to was a difficult task. Eventually though, she was put on one that has done wonders for controlling her seizures.
This girl, Louise, is my sister. We are 11 years apart in age, and when I was younger, I didn't really understand what epilepsy was. I couldn't quite grasp the concept of going into convulsions and having absolutely no control over your body.
Louise is going to be 30 years old this year, and I have to say that she is doing wonderfully for herself. She lives on her own, has a part time job, and participates in many extra-curricular activities such as swimming and self-defence. But she hasn't always been this independent and active.
When she was in her early twenties, she went to school in Texas to learn to become independent and how to take care of herself.
When the rest of my brothers and sisters saw her, they said they could see the old Louise shining through.
The one and only time that I witnessed a seizure was during Christmas about seven years ago. Louise came in from Texas to spend the holidays with the rest of us. Probably due to the excitement of the flight and the many people around, she had a seizure. She had also been taken off her medication. Louise was taken to the hospital. There, she was given an anticonvulsant and has been on it ever since. I think that was the last seizure she ever had.
I'll be honest: when I was younger, I thought that because my sister had epilepsy, it meant that she wasn't normal. I was a believer in all the myths about epilepsy. For example: when someone is having a seizure, you should stick a spoon in their mouth to prevent them from swallowing their tongue. WRONG! That is the last thing that you should do! All you do is support their head, clear any dangerous or sharp objects out of the way and let the seizure continue its course. But I didn't know that.
There were actually a lot of things that I didn't know about epilepsy until my co-op placement here began. In doing research, writing articles and fact sheets, I learned a lot. I now know what to do in case I ever happen to come across someone having a seizure. I hope that in sharing my story with you, it helps you to realize that if you are a person with a seizure disorder or you know someone like this, you shouldn't feel limited in the things you do or that you have to hold back. You can do anything anyone else can just the same, maybe even better!
