What if others say they're afraid you'll have a seizure?

Posted by Dan Noyes @dannoyes, 2 days ago

A friend recently came to town and he wanted to get together for lunch. On the way to the restaurant, he looked at me with trepidation and asked, "What do I do if you have a seizure?" Many of us are so used to epilepsy we don't even think twice about what it must be like for our family and friends to be with us. During the holidays, I once again saw some of my family giving me some distance, especially while I had a mini-absence seizure at Costco (not convulsive, but...well, you know). I'd love to know how you have handled this, especially getting together with people you haven't seen in ages.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

@methel thank you for your post, yes i have watched a few videos and my daughter checks often for new information because or her health issues and possibly one day a grand seizure. they can be scary and her wife has studied long hours to help us both in times of need. spreading the word helps so that others can help when out and about. just like so many things that can go wrong, there is classes or multiple web sites you can visit and getting better every year. best we can do is to give who are worried, places on the web to check or videos or numbers to call. try to put their minds at ease. hope this helped.

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@randallshields56

Epilepsy has a long history of being stigmatized and misunderstood. And some people I think don’t want to deal with the disease because of the stigma involved instead of the straightforward medical issues. This can be hard for those of us with epilepsy to deal with.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

welcome to the group, telling someone you haven't seen in years can have many outcomes , my friends would ask if thy needed to do anything if while with me and i would let them know just as i would let a family or close friend know. right up front. that's how my friends know me and wouldn't want less. if you are really worried about it have it out as soon as able to stave off future issues or more. course that is my opinion, i just don't like others being shocked unnecessarily if i can help it. a good friend would take it however you put it to them.

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@randallshields56 Correct, Dan, Randy. You'll know who your true friends are. I learned I had only 3 friends, out of about 15 with whom I routinely associated. I now know them as past casual acquaintances.

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Profile picture for royanthony @royanthony

@randallshields56 Correct, Dan, Randy. You'll know who your true friends are. I learned I had only 3 friends, out of about 15 with whom I routinely associated. I now know them as past casual acquaintances.

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@royanthony that's sad so many but in reality so few. mine right now are mainly family or associated the others are too far away to just get up and go see, kind of reached that stage where life doesn't give you a lot of choices. right now just waiting on results to be read by doctor and go from there. what really is disturbing is i am the last one to know with my daughter taking over my primary care and life. I'm kind of like a shadow if anything were to happen to my daughter I'm not sure what would happen with me . fend for myself best i could I'm sure. my true friends i can count on one hand. that's life

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Profile picture for royanthony @royanthony

@randallshields56 Correct, Dan, Randy. You'll know who your true friends are. I learned I had only 3 friends, out of about 15 with whom I routinely associated. I now know them as past casual acquaintances.

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@royanthony that is a shame on the 15 because i believe in people still and not a lot of people do now days. some its just the way they are. others the way they were raised. even more that think they are too good to be around you. i have noticed in years gone by, but people don't instill the good stuff in their kids anymore. and its a shame. i see it way to often especially around stores or malls. but i still believe in good. sometimes have to dig for it but its there. even in your case. check a little deeper.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

another thing i have learned from the seizures both myself and daughter get is we both have different triggers. hers are usually because of too much going on in the brain and getting overheated. hers didn't start till she had her two kids. mine was from a tumor and too many head traumas .with bringing family on board was tough, but every obstacle i improved on regardless if i considered it a win or not. it was to them. i knew i was being watched 24/7 but they learned with me that i would let them know the minuet i was not feeling right. mad a big difference after a while, only one condition, had to have my phone with me always. what set mine off was too much input to the brain at a time. made me think to hard, i taught them patience and it paid off for all of us. now i think of what i want to say before i say it, makes good practice for speaking to anyone.

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thank you for the helpful.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

would like to make a statement kind of off subject. my caregiver has increased her hours so i have her full days, makes it hard to react to notices that catch my eyes and medications, evening ones make me sleepy and not as fresh you might say, so going to try to catch a few in the morning a a few at night along with as many as i can on the weekends. Not sure of my near future yes with the hospital finding the cyst in my brain or what we have to do to fight it , but fight i will just be patient with me and i will respond as soon as able. thank you all so much for the likes and hugs an helpful. it means a lot .

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Thank you Laura.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

another thing i have learned from the seizures both myself and daughter get is we both have different triggers. hers are usually because of too much going on in the brain and getting overheated. hers didn't start till she had her two kids. mine was from a tumor and too many head traumas .with bringing family on board was tough, but every obstacle i improved on regardless if i considered it a win or not. it was to them. i knew i was being watched 24/7 but they learned with me that i would let them know the minuet i was not feeling right. mad a big difference after a while, only one condition, had to have my phone with me always. what set mine off was too much input to the brain at a time. made me think to hard, i taught them patience and it paid off for all of us. now i think of what i want to say before i say it, makes good practice for speaking to anyone.

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thank you for all the mentions.

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Profile picture for methel @methel

@marianne72

I have been really lucky, I guess, because my kids who are local have seen me with a seizure and treat them as “ this is just what mom does”. ( It makes you wonder what other things I do they think are odd. ) I once electrified my church group with a generalized seizure, but the retired RN recognized it and knew how to handle it.
The epilepsy foundation has a video on their website showing you what to do for someone with a seizure. If you know someone who says they are worried about this, tell them to look for that video.

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@methel — thx for your honesty, good stories, and the video referral. It’s a good idea to have something nonthreatening like the video to share with others who just might have the opportunity to help someone (or me!). Blessings and peace.

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

@royanthony that's sad so many but in reality so few. mine right now are mainly family or associated the others are too far away to just get up and go see, kind of reached that stage where life doesn't give you a lot of choices. right now just waiting on results to be read by doctor and go from there. what really is disturbing is i am the last one to know with my daughter taking over my primary care and life. I'm kind of like a shadow if anything were to happen to my daughter I'm not sure what would happen with me . fend for myself best i could I'm sure. my true friends i can count on one hand. that's life

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thank you Marianne

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Profile picture for Randy Shields @randallshields56

@randallshields56 would add to that if my friend was concerned, id walk them through a couple scenario's. let them know you know how and what to do. who knows maybe say i have a health issue and don't want to scare you off if it rears its ugly head, i know how to handle this. I'm actually going thru something like this now, i told my friend the doctors are not worried and said they are working hard to get me on the right meds to keep my seizure's at bay. it helped calm her down enough we could visit more.

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thank you for your helpful and so much more.

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