Not a Stroke -- Just Epilepsy

A few years ago ... let's say March of 2001 ... I experienced my first inkling of what would become Absence Epilepsy. Of course I didn't know it was epilepsy. I thought I was having a stroke.

So of course I did the smart thing and drove myself to my doctor's office. Wouldn't you?

Eventually I wound up in the emergency room of a wonderful hospital. Being very bored I had to have something to do.

What you have to remember is I had had a seizure. A massive seizure -- all of my communication skills were gone, and my words, when I tried, I just stumbled. Finally, I was able to convey to the ER nurses I needed a phone and a phone book, which they were quick to provide.

Easily I was able to find people to call - though I don't remember whether I knew them or not. Speaking on the phone was not easy for me, and the people who answered their phones, had to wonder who was calling them.

I do remember calling people time and again. And, the phone I used was on the nurses' counter, so they couldn't really take it away from me, and they couldn't sedate me without a doctor's orders.

I had to have been a real pain for them, but they were always gracious and kind to me. Finally, the ER doctor came, sedated me and whisked me off to an MRI. While the ER nurses had a break from me, the neuro nurses had no idea what was coming.

Here it is eight years later -- and I never had a stroke, just epilepsy, a brain tumor, and brain cancer ... inoperable at that. After radiation and chemo I am so blessed to know and be able to praise the Living God ... I have no brain tumor, no brain cancer.

The aphasia that goes along with the seizures of abs-once epilepsy can be frustrating, and exhausting. Nothing like the other types of epilepsy, and for that I am thankful.