I had childhood epilepsy! It started with a grand mal seizure when I was eight years old in the middle of the night. I experienced years of medication, testing and seizures. My epilepsy was the type that I grew out of when I went through puberty. I still get migraines but the worst was over and I was going to move past Epilepsy.

Fast forward to April 2021 during the height of the pandemic. My eight year old son woke in the early morning and snuck into my bed. It was about time to get ready for school.

He sat up and said “mom” in a slurred voice and then he started to have a focal seizure. It was only about 40 seconds but it felt like a lifetime. I knew instantly what it was and talked him through it calmly and we did all the emergency measures of getting him to a hospital for a scan and follow ups. It was diagnosed that he also had benign rolandic epilepsy.

I am now managing epilepsy again but in a different role. I know what epilepsy feels like for my son because I have gone through it, and I can be an advocate for him. I am guiding my son through all the triggers, symptoms, managing healthy eating and sleep habits and the stigmatization of epilepsy. It’s not scary and I can help him though and he knows I can relate to him because I have had it. I don’t know if I would have been this calm and reassuring if I didn’t experience epilepsy first hand.

Medicine has come a long way since I had my childhood epilepsy and am happy that the research and awareness is being completed now more than ever! I hope that my son will take his experience with epilepsy and create more awareness and help break the stigma as well.

For years I never wanted to talk about my epilepsy, but now that I’m a parent of a child with epilepsy I want to to share with others our story and help remove the stigma.

Thanks for helping spread awareness,

From two excited brains, Naomi & Gavin