Monday, July 9, 2012

Understated Dangers

So as anyone following this blog knows I'm a person living with epilepsy. What bothers me is not the condition itself or even what the condition has put me through. God saw me through it one piece and shared any pain I may have  been going through. What really bothers me is the attitude of the general public about epilepsy.
Now I understand that it wasn't to long ago that this condition was untreatable and the only thing doctors could do was lock a person with epilepsy up in a mental institution. I even get that some people are so under informed that they believe this condition isn't a condition, but a person simply possessed and a simple exorcism will cure everything. I even get that hundreds of years ago that people like me were burned at the stake accused of consorting with the devil. 
It's time to pay attention and learn about epilepsy. If Breast Cancer can have all these organizations dedicated to finding a cure why not epilepsy. Don't get me wrong I would love for their to be a cure to breast cancer, but what people fail to realize that epilepsy kills to. It's known as SUDEP. The largest amount of SUDEP deaths are in the UK. All it takes is for a person to have a seizure in the wrong part of the brain and they die. Or to be doing the wrong thing at the wrong time and then their life is cut short.
What so many people think is their is medicine for that. It's no big deal. Heck they even have surgery now. Nothing to worry about.  First of all I have a mild case and just because I'm under control now doesn't mean I'll never have a seizure again. I actually saw a YouTube video where they mentioned a girl who had been seizure free for ten years and then bam she had seizure and died. I don't what she was doing at the time. Maybe she fell and hit her head wrong or maybe she was driving.  
Their are many cases of epilepsy that can't be controlled with medication and are not even considered for surgery because of the type of epilepsy they have. If you have focalized you have shot, but the surgery doesn't guarantee you'll never seize again. It could just jump to another part of your brain and then there are those like me with generalized seizures. When we have a seizure the easy way to put it is the whole brain goes wonky. Someone with generalized seizures would need an entirely new brain. 
Did you know that their is a whole month dedicated to epilepsy awareness. It's the month of November and the color is purple. When it's a cause like cancer it's everywhere. Heck even Kroger's joins in, but not a whisper of epilepsy during it's month of awareness. The only news I get in that month is from organizations that have their hands busy trying to just help all the epileptics. 
Doctors don't mention SUDEP because their still a lot they don't know. They don't want to tell a person their is no cure for this and yes you can die from it and it's already claimed thousands of lives completely unnoticed!