Epilepsy

My Fear of Epilepsy

Have you ever witnessed something so terrifying or breath-taking that temporally paralyzes you? Can you think of a time when you watched someone go through something extremely painful, but could do nothing to ease the pain? In 2004 I witnessed my mother fall in to a seizure, and there was nothing I could do about it. In November 2004, my life and my mother’s life changed forever. In this analytic memorandum, I will discuss in detail how witnessing this seizure affected me and created a new level of fear.

In November 2004, my mother was sitting at the kitchen table talking on the telephone (I was on the computer), when suddenly I heard a loud yarning noise. I turned to find my mother shaking and jerking uncontrollably until she fell to the floor. She continued to shake and foam out of the mouth for what seemed like forever. After her body became still, she just laid there in a deep sleep. My first thought was why is my mother yarning so loudly, and stretching so wide that she knocked over her glass of water? I stood there scared and in disbelief, trying to figure out what had happened to my mother. Seeing my mother have this seizure quickly made me realize how one incident can impact your life forever. The most fearful thought was thinking my mother was dead. I had seen someone have a seizure in the past, but not like the seizure my mother had. For a split second I felt paralyzed, I recollected myself and called 9-1-1. Although I was very afraid and emotional, I remained very calm while talking to the dispatcher. I knew that remaining calm was the quickest way to get my mom the medical attention that she needed. When my mother began to regain consciousness, she looked at my eyes full of tears and asked what was wrong. I replied by asking what was wrong with her! At that time neither she nor I was aware that she had just experienced one of many seizures to come.

When the responders arrived, she was consciousness enough to know she did not...