Battling Having Epilepsy

In 3rd grade the craziest thing that could have happened, happened to me. Sometimes even when I think about it now I'm like wow this actually happened and it's not a dream. On one normal day my class was going to go to the RoseBowl to go swimming because we got signed up for swimming lessons, but before we all had to take a diagnostic. I had to sit at my teacher's desk because I needed to charge my chrome book and I remember feeling really off and not normal. 

So I tried to speak but nothing would come out, then I started to have a seizure. My teacher screamed for someone to get the nurse so he wouldn't leave me alone, and I remember the nurse running in the classroom and asking what's going on and then she realized what was happening. I remember her cold hands touching my arms trying to help me get up after it happened. She walked me to her office and the principal came in also because I was close with her daughter at the time so we were also close. So she came in to make me feel better but I just remember feeling sick to my stomach. Then one of the office ladies came in too because she knew my brother very well. I remember her tickling me to make me laugh and to try to cheer me up also. 

Then the nurse had to call my dad and tell him what had just happened and I remember hearing my dad on the phone crying and how speechless he was. Then my dad picked me up and took me to the hospital. When we were waiting in like I was so nauseous I couldn't even stand up. So then I went and sat down and waited for the doctor to call my name. The doctor finally called my name and they ran tests on me and told me I was diagnosed with epilepsy. 

Then they requested for us to go to a doctor in LA so then they can do brain tests on me. The doctor wanted me to go to bed really late and wake up really early so then I could be super tired. They wanted to run the sleep test on me so they could look at my brain waves. After they did that they looked at the tests and saw what medication would be best for me, they put me on a liquid medication but I can't remember the name. I just remember it being really disgusting, but I got used to it the more I took it. 

I would have to take it every morning and every night, sometimes when I forgot to take it before school my parents had to come and drop it off in a shot glass, so then I would take it and then run back to class. After a couple weeks of being on the medication I still had really bad seizures every night, it got to a point where I had to sleep with my parents every night. 

I kept pushing through it and kept being consistent about taking my medication every night. Things still weren't the best but one night it got really bad. October 30th, 2020 my best friend and I were having a sleepover for Halloween. I was beyond excited because my parents wouldn't let me have sleepovers because they were scared that if I had a seizure it would really scare my friends. Since it was Halloween my parents finally let me have a sleepover, but that wasn't the best idea. Me and my best friend Zoe first went to a drive-thru haunted house. It was really funny because it wasn't really that scary. After that, we went back to my mom's best friend's house and we stayed there till almost 1:00 a.m. I was having a lot of fun but in the moment while we were playing Just Dance I started to feel really weird and off so my mom said we should just go home so we can go to bed. 

Zoe and I were so tired we just fell right asleep and I completely forgot to take my medication. At like 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. I had almost a 5-minute seizure which is really bad. Zoe ran straight into my parent's room and woke them up and told them that I was having a seizure. I was completely upside down and my face was turning purple, and I was starting not to be able to breathe. Thankfully Zoe was there to hold me as to make sure I didn't fall fully over and hurt myself. When I woke up I couldn't really remember anything that just happened, the only thing I could really remember was that I felt really sad. After all that time that I didn't have a seizure I came back even worse. 

After Zoe left I felt super nauseous and we went straight to the Hospital. I had to get tons of IVs in my arm and I was there for at least 5 hours. I finally got to go home and when I saw my brother I just completely started breaking down to him. I had to explain to him what had happened and he was really scared and so were my parents. A couple years go by and now I'm in 7th grade. I got my last rain check to see if I still had epilepsy and it was fully gone. I felt so happy and so relieved that all my stress about having another seizure was gone.

I really believe that after what has happened to me now I can overcome anything. I have such an amazing family and I have so much support. Even if you think things keep getting worse, you just have to be patient and really trust your gut and understand that things have to get worse before they get better. The best thing that you can do is just try to continue to be positive and just try to be that person that people can come to when they feel down.