I’ve never been particularly good at disguising my emotions. When I’m upset, angry, or even happy it tends to be written all over my face (or in the case of a blog all over my writing) which is why there’s been a lack of posting lately. While I love talking about running (I did complete my half marathon last weekend btw, and all I have to say is it was painful) and gluten-free eating, sometimes there are bigger, more life-altering things happening.
With all that said, a few weeks ago August had a seizure. To first give a little background, for the entire 2 years that I’ve known August he’s had short (1 second or less) twitches or tics as he referred to them. He has them anywhere from 20-200 times a day but for the most part they don’t interfere with his life other than being a little embarrassing and causing him to drop things occasionally (there’s a reason he’s not allowed to drink out of glass cups) and he’s had them since he was a teenager. He also has spells where it seems as though he’s day-dreaming and won’t respond to me when I’m talking to him which he’s had for as long as he can remember. But besides making me slightly annoyed and feeling like he didn’t care what I had to say I never associated those spells with the twitches.
For as long as we’ve been together I told him I wanted him to see a doctor to make sure the twitches were nothing serious but he wanted to wait until he graduated and had better health insurance. But then a few weeks ago he had a legitimate seizure. It probably only lasted 10 seconds but it felt like an eternity, and with that he decided he couldn’t wait to see a doctor any longer.
Earlier this week he was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. It is characterized with absence seizures that begin in adolescence, progresses to myoclonic seizures (eg the twitches he has) around the onset of puberty, and in some people progresses to full-on grand mal seizures during adulthood. The doctor prescribed him with some anti-convulsant medication and we’re taking everything day by day right now. He’s supposed to avoid stressful situations (which is rather ironic given that he’s one month out from defending his dissertation which is just about the most stressful thing ever), sleep deprivation, flashing lights, and hyperventilating.
Since his diagnosis my emotions have pretty much run the gamut. I’ve felt everything from anger that no one took him to the doctor sooner even though he’s been having these seizures for 15+ years, relief that at least we know what we’re dealing with and that medication helps the majority of patients, and fear that either we won’t find a proper medication and the seizures will continue to get worse or that any medication he takes will alter his personality (we are talking about medications that affect the brain after all).
So even though this is a blog about running, gluten-free eating, and my cute doggies, sometimes real life gets in the way off those things. And from me to you, make sure you give a little extra thanks for your good health; I know it’s an easy thing to take for granted.
