Categories
Recent Posts
- A Flawless Diamond
- In this big wild world
- An angel in color
- An Elephant Dancing on My Knee
- Tree Sentiments
Meta
Jan
5
A battlefield for seizures
Filed Under Uncategorized
The recent news broke a heart breaking piece of John Travolta and Kelly Preston son Jett died of seizures, and Travolta, in deep mourning of his son. Seizure, the word has captured me for nearly a decade, emerged again, out of the news. It is not only capturing me in word, but in real terms. It takes me courage to actually publish this piece, for the longest time, I tried to keep it to myself, but as I can see it would be somewhat selfish act to do so any longer, I might as well make it public. I, too, have suffered seizures when I was a child. It is a disease with no real cure, a disease with many misconceptions, a disease will sometimes cause you trouble in school, a disease will probably hinder the prospect of employment, marriage, or conception, and a disease that offers you a lifestyle with mindful limitations. For any past or current seizure patient, he/she will face a serious battlefield for his/her lifetime. A battlefield for the control of the disease itself, a battlefield for misconceptions, and a battlefield for your own limitations and the reality of workplace.
Behind any seizure patient, there are faces of real heroes, the father or mother, the spouse or sister, a caregiver or doctor. The love of the ones behind the patient is really not trivial. They, too, face the battlefield of endless patience, love, physical demand of patient’s transportation needs, work arrangement for taking time off, and the mis-perception of your loved one, it probably hurts more to the parents to see their child to be avoided like a plague than themselves to be treated similarly.
To any family that has a connection to seizure, there are stories of disappointments, miracles, and nevertheless, love. I happen to be one of the lucky ones that experienced the miracle of seizure free life since fourteen years old. It is not to say, I live as exactly as normal folks will, but close, with limitation to stress control especially with physical mobility activities such as driving, biking. But I am a lot better than most of the seizure patients out there who need to battle constantly with their disease. I still remembered vividly about all my EEG tests and how cruel the little kids could be at school to kid around my disease and called me insane. They didn’t know better back then, but it was not to say, I wasn’t sad and alone that time. I always consider my father as a real hero who remembered every dosage and took me to hospital and various doctor’s visits, tests. I guess if it would not for his ten years’ persistent reminders and patience, I would not have kept the seizure under control. With that said, let’s remember it was still a miracle — just like any seizures, there is no cure, and the chances of seizure free is no doctor can predict.
So, it remains in a battlefield, a constant fight with your physical strength, your emotional state, and sometimes even society and cruel reality. I wish some day, the barriers for seizure patients and their loved ones would be lower, and I hope that, will not just remain to be my wish.