Hi Marshiie
I just wanted to say that Megan is now 20. Her experience in middle
and high school was very good in terms of how the teachers and staff
handled her seizures. The kids were quite cruel in middle school, but
that is a different subject. In middle school, they would help Megan
get to the nurse's office and then call me. They would give her a
wheel chair ride out to my car, and we'd go home for a nice post-
ictal nap:) They did call 911 and transport her once in high school,
but that was largely my fault, as we thought her seizures were under
complete control and didn't have a plan in place. When parents and
teachers know of the situation, they will actually step up for your
kid. Megan was at the all night graduation party and had a seizure
(sleep disruption is a trigger, but we weren't about to prevent her
from doing things she wanted to do just because she might have a
seizure.) One of the parents at the event called 911, but another
parent who knew Megan wouldn't let the paramedics transport her.
Our biggest problem was really college, and that is for two reasons.
The first is that colleges have developed a fetish for student
privacy that means they can't contact parents if there is a medical
problem because it violates the student's right to privacy. Yeah....
The second problem is that not very many people actual knew Megan, so
when she had seizures, it was often among people who didn't know she
had epilepsy or what they should do. If she was still at that
college, I would talk to the EMTs, but she is attending a local
college now. It's a smaller school and more people know her, so it
hasn't been as much of an issue. And recently, since she is switching
back to depakote, she has been having fewer seizures, so that helps,
too. Next year she will be transferring to a large university, and
I'm not sure how we'll deal with this. (About 30,000 students. It's
pretty hard to get to know everyone at a school that large:)
One thing Megan wants to do, and that I am encouraging her to do, is
to go out and give talks about epilepsy. We hope we can educate some
people and encourage others with epilepsy to make the most of their
lives. Whenever I read of people who are mistreated because of their
epilepsy, or who isolate themselves, it really makes me sad. We only
get one life and need to make the most of it.
Take care,
Tammy
Megan's Mom
> Re: TREAREMENT OF EPILEPSY
> Posted by: "marshiie51" Marshiie51@yahoo.
> Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:33 pm (PDT)
>
>
>
> I agree with you 100% about ignorance. I just don't understand Why
> more isn't out there about epilepsy...ALL KINDS! In high school I
> had a great school nurse. She knew I had epilepsy. If I had a
> seizure at school in high school, she would make sure I didn't need
> any Ativan, call my parents, and just let me sleep out my posticle
> period. I hope your daughter's school will learn that ALL seizuress
> aren't in need of an EMS. Does her school have a school nurse? I
> guess if they don't maybe EMS, but taking to hospital. It is hard.
> To this day, some EMT's don't let me get back to baseline. I can't
> imagine what it would be like to have to deal with EMT's, doctors,
> hospitals, medications, and everything else that comes with
> epilepsy...and being a parent. I hope you fight hard to teach your
> daughter's school what needs to be done and what doesn't. Best of
> luck.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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