Epilepsy
For me and my family epilepsy is normal to us. About 50 Million people worldwide have epilepsy. It is one of the most common neurological diseases globally. My mother was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was born. This is me, my family and epilepsy.

Growing up it was easy I would say because my grandmother mostly took care of me it was hard for my mom too. As a child my grandmother had worries of my mom dropping me as a baby if she had seizure, so my grandmother practically raised me. I’ve seen my mom have seizures all my life, so it doesn’t bother me as much as it does others. There were sometimes where she had a seizure and was scary, she would shake for too long and her face would turn blue. Every day is a normal day for me my mom takes her daily medicine and we go from there.
Although it was easy for me growing up, I wonder how my baby sisters will grow up with this. I try and make sure they don’t see her having a seizure, but they know when she’s about to have one. It’s crazy because that’s how I was when I was little I didn’t know what was happening and now all I hear my baby sisters say is “mommy’s sick” and I just go on and say yeah but mommy’s ok. I think they’ll be fine though. As soon as they get old enough we will tell them exactly what is wrong with mommy.

A while ago during the summer time my brother had a seizure, we went to the hospital and they said it was because he was dehydrated. I crashed my brother was the second child closest sibling to me. He was already diagnosed with retinoblastoma. He had to stay in the hospital for a year when he was 2 and half getting chemotherapy and then he had to get glass eyes, so this wasn’t easy for me. Then sometime last year in the summer he was in the room like always on his new bunk bed and we all thought he was sleeping. I checked on him and he was just lying there not responding and I automatically knew he had another seizure. He had to stay in the hospital for several days and they diagnosed him with epilepsy. Both my brother and my mom have different types of seizures my mom’s seizures vary a couple times a month whereas my brother he would probably have a seizure every year.

Today things are fine. My mom has new medicine and doesn’t have more than 3 seizures a month, and my bother hasn’t had any since last year and since he’s been on medicine. Epilepsy is not contagious but is scary; about 2.4 million people are diagnosed with epilepsy each year. Epilepsy is very serious to me and my family, but even with my mom and my brother diagnosed with epilepsy that doesn’t stop us from being happy and living. But most important we love each other.