I was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 12 and my life has changed since then. The neuropediatricians could not determine what had caused it for sure, we deduced that it was hereditary, since a sister of my paternal grandmother’s sister suffers from the same disease. I was prescribed many medications which I am allergic to most of. Today I take lamotrigine and topiramate because lamotrigine alone did not work for me.
My life was sad and very hard from then on. I was entering adolescence and my classmates made fun of me because of the crises. As time went on, the teachers and the rest of the class knew how to act and began to support me. The most difficult day was undoubtedly when during a visit to a neurologist he told me that I couldn’t live a normal life anymore; that I couldn’t study, I couldn’t get married or have children, goodbye to sports, swimming and cycling… That’s when my life was over, collapsed in an instant. My mother didn’t keep that answer and looked for more doctors until she found one who gave us hope. She explained to me very clearly what my limitations would be, such as the difficulty of getting pregnant or the over-exertion that would be involved in studying compared to a healthy person, but that I could achieve it with a lot of sacrifice. That gave me the courage to move on and fight back.
As the end of high school approached, my mother advised me to study through high school and then do some beauty. At first, I thought about it, but I soon realized that if I was going to study it would be to go to college and fulfill my dream of studying psychology… And so I did! I finished my degree, graduated and today I am married and have two children. It was not easy, I had complications in my two pregnancies because of the crises but thank God they were born well. I am currently 37 years old, I work in the human resources department of a company and have been there for 7 years. I have been supported by many of the people who work there, both colleagues and bosses.
The best advice I can give you is to fight for your dreams as far as you can, that this disease or condition, as some call it, does not cause you to fall into depression and find a way to achieve your goals. I have a crisis every 3 to 6 months and collapse when I have one, bite my tongue and hurt myself, but now I remind myself that I have to go on for myself and my children and that I can count on the support of my husband who has been doing it for 15 years.
