Hey,
For those of you who know nothing or little about epilepsy and are intrested this is the page to read.
First of all i dont have the tonic clonic or grand mal seizures where people fall over and shake. Theres about 15 types of known epilepsy. My epilepsy is 'Partial seizures'. Basically i have a scar on my frontal lobe and temperal lobe on my brain. The electrical currents we all have going around our brains need to continuosly move, with a scar it acts like a faulty door handle...now and again it wont work for a while-the results partial epilepsy! The lobes of my brain are what causes feelings like fear/anger/pleasure. With people who have partial seizures they take it and act differently. Although it may appear to the average joe bloggs they look the same, its actually effecting the person having them different. In my case when i have a seizure i cant talk, i mumble unvoluntry. I dont like holding anything and everything i see,hear,feel or touch causes me to become more frightened-i get scared of everything. Sometimes people have thought i am drunk as thats how i might appear to them. I stay still, be it standing or sitting and usually this lasts for anywhere inbetween 30 seconds and 5 minutes. It then takes me about 15 minutes to totally recover and usually i need the loo(not that you wanted to know that.lol). Then alls ok again. I do have periods of 'bad days'. Where i will wake up one day feeling attacks coming on and have 2 or 3 a day for a week or 2 days or even 2 weeks. However its not usually like that, usually about 3 days. Im not useless when im feeling ill and i can still get on with things if i push myself but alot of the time i go weeks and sometimes months without being ill so its not as bad as it may sound but its not to be taken lightly either. Im on medication as i have been all my life and it has never worked, just calmed my epilepsy down and given me a list of side effects i dont need. My neaurologist has given up on me because i wont have drugs with animal derevitives in and i wont have brain surgery which he has been pretty forceful over.
Well, thats my epilepsy basically explained! Any questions feel free to ask!
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franpal
Pro - 2007-10-26 @ 14:43:43
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classicrockchick
- 2007-11-27 @ 12:05:12
Well done for sharing that. It's difficult isn't it.
I'm not epileptic, but I am bipolar and I have anti-seizure meds for it. I guess that means I'm not a true vegan though
I have a blog too, under the name 'Electrochick' - though I recently deleted all my posts for both my blogs during one of the mood swings lol.
I hope your epilepsy doesn't stop you doing what you want to do. All the best with the charity stuff
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ciderman
- 2007-11-27 @ 12:37:04
Yeah i know exactly what u mean about not being a true vegan. I take clobazam which has animal derivitives in it. I have refused new drugs because of this and even tried to cut out that drug with no luck.
If you dont mind me asking whats bipolar? Just you dont know unless you ask! And yeah, they use anti-convolsants for alot things other than convultions. It is horrible though when u try and do the right thing and u cant cos of your health! The way i got around feeling guilty was writing to the drug companys...you can find it on the leaflet that comes in your drugs box. I did get a letter back saying that the lactose may have been added in the brewing of the tablet so it may not be from animals, but they wasnt sure! But even after all that the drugs are still animal tested so cruelty free drugs unfortunatly dont happen!
Oh i dont know if you have heard of viva!(vegetarians international voice for animals) i used to be a member but even without membership u can go on there website and get aload of info including foods, make-up, ect ect that are animal product free. Although im not a member now they played a huge part in changing my thinking and my diet! Worth a look!
You will find that the Redwoods company do much more foods than you could imagine and health food shops are definitly the way to go to get them, like i said if you need anymore help just mail me and i'll be happy to help! My home addy is glenpettifer@yahoo.com
Always on here as u can see so take care and keep in touch..nice to know like minded people!
Glen-
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classicrockchick
- 2007-11-27 @ 12:46:11
This is my bipolar blog: http://electrochick.blog.co.uk/
Bipolar is otherwise known as manic depression (Stephen Fry has it). The name 'Electrochick' came about because of having ECT. I was taken off Lithium because of awful side effects, so now I've been started on Lamotrigine. Like you, I desperately didn't want to take anything - but that would mean being very ill, which isn't fair on everyone around me.
Writing to the drug manufacturers is a good idea. Interesting that they don't know where their ingredients come from!
I am a member of Viva but I don't tend to visit the website because I don't like the images of animal cruelty - so just give them my subscription money instead-
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ciderman
- 2007-11-27 @ 13:19:54
Yeah i know what u mean. The images are graphic. I was a member of sevral animal charities and kinda built up a 'resistance' for want of a better word.
I really didn't know that about bipolar.Thanks for filling me in. Mmm, i guess u see people judging u alot hey, because i dont fall over when i have attacks i get judged and i always think until you've been in my shoes dont judge. The only good thing its done for me is that i dont judge others when i dont understand what they have and dont feel its my place to judge anyway.
Yeah the stupid thing with the drugs i read is one of the side effect are seizures! Its stupid how many side effects can come out of one tablet and if im honest the side effects are worse than the seizures themselves.
Anyway i better run. You take care.
Glen -
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Hey Ciderman, glad you shared that with us. sometimes it is not easy to make people understand what you are going through but I think you have done a good job of explaining how epilepsy affects you. I also think that you are the only one who understands your body and the way the condition affects you so you should always feels 'in charge' of your medication.
Take care and have a good day