Epileptic Seizures:

Epileptic Seizures:
 I can relate really well to this subject, because I have friends that deal with epilepsy. Though, I must admit when I witnessed one first hand, I really did not know what to do, so to say I panicked is an understatement, because really, I didn’t know what was going on. I’ll explain a little more on what epilepsy is, that way everyone has a clear definition. The ehealthMD website defines epilepsy as “a term used for a group of disorders that cause disturbances in electrical signaling in the brain.” You can read more about them here:EhealthMD

About two million people in the United States have epilepsy, or they experience seizures at certain points in their lives. Most of the people have epilepsy; usually experience their first seizure during some point in their childhood. What I did not know, is that there are some researchers estimate that there are about 500 different genes that could be linked to epilepsy, so I thought that was pretty interesting to note. This video discusses on what causes epilepsy,what causes Epilepsy?

I didn’t know one of my friends had epilepsy, so I naturally I didn’t know she would have an epileptic seizure. I remember we were twelve at that time, and our parents had dropped us off at the dollar theater where we were going to meet up with some of our other friends, well not to long after the movie started did my friend have the seizure.

Let me back track, because back then, yes, I did not know what a seizure was. A seizure is sometimes referred to as temporary disturbance in our brain function. Groups of nerve cells located in our brain give out abnormal signals excessively. What I did NOT know is that, they occur as rapidly as 500 per second for a short time due to that abnormality.  I should note that just because a person has a seizure, that doesn’t automatically mean they have epilepsy, something else could have triggered it. These epileptic seizures can occur during the day or night, even while asleep they can occur. When I found out that they can occur while someone is sleeping kind of frightened me, because what if your son or daughter is having a seizure during their sleep how would anyone know?  

I remember that afternoon while we were sitting in the theater, and waiting for the movie to begin. We were all sitting, talking and joking with each other when the lights suddenly began to dim down, movie commercials started playing and then my friend excused herself to go to the bathroom. At that time we went in pairs, never alone, so I was going to go with her, but I was expecting her to suddenly out of nowhere to fall to the ground in the middle of the aisle and shaking. Me, being dumb was like “Dude, get up what the heck are doing?” and when I didn’t get a response, I was going to bend down to see if she was alright when a few people ran up to me and told me not to touch her, and that she’s have a seizure, of course the ambulance came, and we called her mom. At that time, I should have been paying attention to what they were doing, because I could have helped, but I was scared, thinking that my friend was dying (not ashamed to admit that, I was a twelve year girl, who didn’t think much haha).  To make a long story short, at the hospital, that’s where I learned she had an epileptic seizure, and told us what to do next time it happens. When someone is having a seizure, be it from epilepsy or not use caution and care when you’re willing to help out!

Dr. George Morris director of the Regional Epilepsy Center at Aurora gives a short explanation of epilepsy Dr. George Morris/Epilepsy
This video describes what a person should do when someone is having a mild or severe seizure: what you need to know