I was only four so I can’t remember my first seizure, but my mom said we were camping. I laid down in the cold grass and everyone was telling me to get up, but I couldn’t. Nobody knew what was wrong with me; they picked me up and I couldn’t talk. It lasted a long time and we drove to the hospital where the doctors knew right away it was a seizure. After that, my mom and dad realized that they had noticed a few things I did before that but didn’t realize at the time they were seizures.
My family took part in the Clinic to Community Program and Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario (ESWO) taught us about epilepsy and safety. When I was in public school, we organized a Purple Day every year and we came to the ESWO office to get T-shirts and tattoos.
I wish I didn’t have seizures but some really cool things have happened in my life because I have epilepsy! When I was little my epilepsy was very bad and I couldn’t even go a day or sometimes an hour without having a seizure. I was given a dream from the Sunshine Foundation and my whole family went to Disney World. When I was in the Children’s Hospital for 10 days, the London Knights came into my room and invited me and my family to a game where we met the players, got autographs, and saw the dressing room. I got to drop the puck at the opening faceoff at a Stratford Cullitons game and meet the team. I also got to meet Boyd Devereaux when he was skating in the Battle of the Blades competition for Epilepsy.
Everybody has challenges in their life and epilepsy is my challenge. I have a good sense of humour and that makes the hard things easier. I want other people living with epilepsy to take their medication every day at the same time and get lots of sleep because seizures and medication could make you tired. Don’t go swimming unless you have someone right close to you watching you. If things are going bad for you, don’t worry they can get better, and some people grow out of having seizures too.