As a child my life was pretty normal. I had friends, my sister, and lived in a two parent home. The only thing that I struggled with was seizures. When I was about four years old I was playing around with my sister and my dad. He was teaching us a trick on how to flip. We would squat down with our legs spread apart and our arms in between. Then he would pull our hands upward and we would flip. It was pretty fun for my sister and I. My dad continued to flip us, eventually he became tired and told us that was it he could not take it anymore. However, my sister and I wanted to keep going. So my sister, who was only seven, and I decided we could try it ourselves. Not the best idea given our small height difference. Anyways we gave it a try. I …show more content…
On the way to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital I had five more episodes in the car. My mom sat in the back seat with me to make sure I did not swallow my tongue or hurt myself. In the few seconds in between me having my seizures my mom with tears running down her face would rock me back and forward saying it will be alright I got you. Seeing my mom hurt I began crying as well. I did not know what was going on I just knew had no control over my body and it scared me. By the time we got to the hospital my father got me out the back seat, picked me up and then ran through the front door begging someone to help us and figure out what was wrong with me. The nurses asked what was wrong and my father having no prior knowledge of what seizures were he exclaimed, “My daughter has been shaking uncontrollably”. The nurse asked how many times did this happen he said ten times, and then demanded that they find a doctor. By this time my mom and sister had parked the car and were on their way inside the hospital. Within a few minutes of them walking in I looked at my dad and told him that I felt like I was about to have another one. My eyes rolled back and from my leg up I began to shake again. They rushed me to the back where they hooked me up to the I.V. and a heart rate monitor. I looked over to see my sister crying continuously and my mom consoling her all the while yelling at the doctors to tell her what was going on. After my episode I turned over and closed my
When I was a child I thought everybody’s family would be the same, just your average family like mine and yours. My life as a child was a carefree life, I didn’t care for much, except stuff like doctors or dentist, I’ve done pretty much what an average kid did, I thought we had a good life going. When I went to my classmate’s house or meet their family they seemed like they were average to me. I never thought about how us as a family would have any trouble in the world, I was wrong.
First off, it is important to understand what a seizure is. A seizure is caused by abnormal discharge of electric stimulation in the brain. They may also be caused by salt imbalances in the blood, gastrointestinal disease, poisoning, head injury, brain disease such as a tumor, a malformed blood vessel, or anything that causes sudden lack of oxygen to the brain.((1).) Seizures are also grouped into different categories depending on how severe they are and also depending on which part of the brain is effected. For example, if the entire brain is involved it is a generalized seizure as opposed to if only a portion of the brain is effected and in that case the seizure is a partial seizure. ((2).) There are two types of partial seizures, simple partial and complex partial. There are also two types of generalized seizures, generalized absence (petit mal) and tonic-clonic (grand mal). The seizures that my sister has are tonic-clonic or grand mal, which are considered the most severe type of seizure to have. With a tonic-clonic seizure, there are two phases. In the tonic phase, the person loses consciousness and falls, as the body grows rigid. In the clonic phase, body extremities jerk and twitch. After the seizure, consciousness returns slowly. ((2).)
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent and uncertain intrusions of normal brain function, called epileptic seizure (Fisher et al., 2005). The word epilepsy was derived from the Greek word “attack”. The primitive Greeks thought epilepsy was contagious, and hence people with epilepsy used to live alone (Dam, 2003). It is one of the oldest conditions known to humankind (WHO, 2001a) and still the most common neurological condition affecting individuals of all ages. At any given time, it is appraise that 50 million individuals worldwide have a detection of epilepsy (WHO, 2001b). Epilepsy is charaterised by the incident of at least two unprovoked events of recurrent disruption in neurological function. Epilepsy is not a single prognosis but is a symptom with many fundamental causes. (Nunes et al., 2012).
Epilepsy, also known as “seizure disorder,” or “seizure attack,” is the fourth most common neurological disorder known to mankind, affecting an estimated 2.3 million adults and 467,711 children in the United States. Unfortunately this disorder is becoming far more common and widespread worldwide. This staggering number of cases of people suffering from Epilepsy also involves an average growth rate of 150,000 new cases each year in the United States alone. Generally, many of the people who develop who are a part of the new are mainly either young children or older adults. Your brain communicates through chemical and electrical signals that are all specialized for specific tasks. However, through the process of communication, chemical messengers, also known as neurotransmitters can suddenly fail, resulting in what is known as a seizure attack. Epilepsy occurs when a few too many brain cells become excited, or activated simultaneously, so that the brain cannot function properly and to it’s highest potential. Epilepsy is characterized when there is an abnormal imbalance in the chemical activity of the brain, leading to a disruption in the electrical activity of the brain. This disruption specifically occurs in the central nervous system (CNS), which is the part of the nervous system that contains the brain and spinal cord. This causes an interruption in communication between presynaptic neurons and postsynaptic neurons; between the axon of one neuron, the message sender and the dendrite of another neuron, the message recipient. Consequently, the effects that epileptic seizures may induce may range anywhere from mild to severe, life-threatening ramifications and complications. There are many different types of seizures associa...
Immediately my adrenaline kicked in and I began to go into shock. For three years I was trained to handle medical dilemmas and seizures, but this was real. After a ten second panic attack subdued, I allowed my training to commence. I asked a witness to call 911 and I jumped to aid by checking her vitals to make sure she was breathing and still alive. Lifeguards and I rolled her onto her side and monitored the length of the convulsions and eventually medics arrived and took over the scene. This lady survived this catastrophe and returned to the park less than a week later and found me, she was extremely grateful for myself and the lifeguard that aided her. The gratitude and appreciation she expressed made me enjoy and respect my
Epilepsy, also called seizure disorder, chronic brain disorder that briefly interrupts the normal electrical activity of the brain to cause seizures, characterized by a variety of symptoms including uncontrolled movements of the body, disorientation or confusion, sudden fear, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy may result from a head injury, stroke, brain tumor, lead poisoning, genetic conditions, or severe infections like meningitis or encephalitis. In over 70 percent of cases no cause for epilepsy were identified. About 1 percent of the world population, or over 2 million people, are diagnosed with epilepsy.
Epilepsy is an ailment that expresses itself by an attack. An attack occurs because of an abrupt, temporary bother of the electric stimulus in the brains. That means that something goes wrong in the brains, a kind of short circuit. An attack can express itself in several ways. The most well known insult is the tonic-clonic one. Most of the time the person who experiences a tonic-clonic insult, falls down on the ground with arms and legs showing spasm. All muscles relax, so the bladder as well. That can be very embarrassing for the person after the attack. Besides that, epilepsy is different for every person. Usually after an attack, people don’t know that they had one. Yet, some people feel an attack coming. That is called an aura.
Epilepsy is a very common neurological disorder. Some reports estimate that five in one-thousand people suffer from this problem. Throughout history, people with epilepsy have been shunned or considered inferior. Even today, ignorance leads many people to treat the epileptic as "abnormal" or "retarded". Although the etiology of epilepsy is still not fully understood, it is quite treatable due to advances in modern medicine.
– The two types of seizures (partial and generalized) are not treated in the same way or with the same medicine. One particular medicine that may control complex partial seizures may worsen myoclonic seizures on another patient. A physical exam (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature) and a detailed medical history of the patient often provides the best clues in order to determine what type of epilepsy and seizures they have been having, and whether or not they actually do have epilepsy. The more a patient co
Serious illnesses change lives forever. I was given the challenge of cerebral palsy to overcome throughout my life. Cerebral palsy is a permanent illness which affects the brain and causes it to be "immature". I was born with it so I never was given the opportunity to avoid it. I feel different about the situation on a daily basis. One day I wake up happy, thanking God that even though I have to live through a constant battle, I'm still lucky to be alive. Others I wake up angry, angry at the fact that my friends and family get to live normal lives where as I didn't even have the choice of living a normal life. But what is normal exactly? The way I see it is that no one really is normal. We all have our constant battles to put up with throughout our lives. Whether we have a labeled illness, or it's something that challenges you mentally such as divorce or your faith, we all have our own little battles. The key, though, to overcoming these battles is to accept them and take charge of them rather than letting them take charge of you. Living with Cerebral Palsy, I've come t...
The stress of my day drained away the moment I heard my sister’s laughter. Every other noise would vibrate in the eardrum and make me feel like I was about to topple over. I reached out for her, the warm, small palms fitting entirely in mine. When she flashes an innocent smile in my direction, I cannot not help but feel grateful I have her around. Although she does not understand it, I attribute my determination to succeed to her.
Six months ago I decided that I needed an animal companion. I did a lot of research about Maltese dogs. I looked through the internet to learn if that was the right dog for me. After I was done with my research about Maltese, I looked through newspaper ads and visited the animal shelter to see if I could find one. I came upon an ad in the newspaper for some six month old Maltese puppies, which a lady was selling.
She told me that mom needed to tell me something. She proceeded to tell me that my father had had a heart attack and that I had a choice to come down to the hospital or not to come. She told me it was a scary sight, and if I didn?t think I could handle it that I should stay home. I was overwhelmed with fear and grief at that moment that my mind just stopped working. I remember thinking all I wanted was to be with my mom and my dad.
Have you ever been influenced by some important person that helped you be the person that you are today? I have been. The people that have had influence on me are the most important humans beings, my family. But before I begin talking about my family, I want to describe to you the place that we spend most of the time together which also means something important to me and my family. This place is called the family room. This room is small but cozy. It is painted in white and has three windows decorated with beautiful curtains. By the windows you can appreciate a nice view of some beautiful trees and a nice pool. On the walls there are some family photos like the ones that show where my brothers and I were born, my graduation photo, some family members photos like my grandparents, and some paintings made by one of my brothers. Also inside this room there is a nice home theater that includes a nice stereo and TV, and a new compact computer. But this is not all, this room has some very comfortable furniture and I can say that they are comfortable because I use them to watch TV, a movie, or just sit and rest. Also the furniture is used by my brothers to sit and play nitendo, to study, or play with the computer. But from all this furniture there is one chair that is the most cozy chair that I have ever sat upon and that is my father's chair. So this is our room, which is very important to us and has a lot of special things, but the most special part of this room is when it brings my family together.
At no point in life can you be perfect at anything, but you can prepare yourself for the adventures of life. One of life’s biggest challenges is marriage. Marriage requires preparation emotionally and spiritually. Marriage is considered to be one of the hardest aspects of life to control. Merging two different customary lifestyles into one can be difficult especially since the feelings of both are involved. I have learned both the numerous ways to destroy and build a successful marriage. Marriage is the union of man and woman becoming as one flesh according to God’s law and the law of the land.