My husband has had epilepsy his entire life and I like to share a few interesting facts that we learned together over the years.
The first being something we learned several years ago when he had to switch neurologists because of a new medical insurance/health provider. His entire life, until then, he had been taking 3 pills in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. The new doctor put him on a time-release medication, which helped immensely. We were surprised to learn that for the entire time he was growing up, he never had any medication before bed. By the time he got up in the morning, all the medication was completely out of his body.
He now takes 3 pills when he first wakes up and 3 pills just before he goes to sleep. The medication is constantly in his system and has made a world of difference.
Some of the things we learned might be helpful to others.
Many years ago while working, I got into a conversation with a woman who had a young daughter who had epilepsy and I actually dialed my home phone number and let her speak to my husband. She didn't have a clue about waking her daughter up slowly or opening up all the curtains in the child's room and letting all the sunshine in.
I also don't panic, my husband makes this noise when he's having a seizure and when I hear him doing it, I get up, get my peas and within 3-5 minutes, it's done and over with and he's getting dressed for work.
Over the years we've tried different things and I'm just sharing what we found to work at least for us. There are different kinds of seizures and I know 100% at least in his case, that light, noise, lack of sleep, and being constipated definitely does affect him.
By CPJ from Madison, AL
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have seizures and am afraid to go out by myself to walk for exercise. Any ideas how to "walk" inside at home?
By gayle from Rochester, NY
My husband and I bought a motorized treadmill two years ago. The exercise equipment has saved us a substantial amount of money than buying two memberships at a fitness center.
If you don't have the room or money for walking exercise equipment just use hand weights in each hand of one or two pounds each and walk from room to room/back and forth for a few minutes a day and have some music going in the background to keep you from being bored while doing it :-) Start slowly and then build up your pace and amount of time you do it each day :-) You might wear out the carpet/floors but at least you'll feel safe and still get your exercise :-)
There is a free to view one mile express walk video at this internet site on the right side of the screen. Take it up to full screen for a better view. Not much space is needed for this one mile walk which is done in about 15 minutes. You can take it slow and easy or participate at the full level- your choice.
www.walkathome.com/
Leslie Sansone has a series of DVD's for walking in the home. I bought mine at Target. Prevention Magazine also has a walk tape to use in the home. I hope this helps. You might find the tapes at the library too.
I walk inside of my home. We have a finished basement I use too. I start in one end of my house and walk from one end of my house to the other to the stairway. Go down the stairway to the basement and to the other end of the basement and back. Go up the stairs and back to the beginning. Then I continue to make another round again. I keep doing this for 20 minutes or so. That way I get plenty of walking as well as stair climbing up and down. I don't have to consider the bad weather.
I'm in a similar situation, but I have visual and balance impairment rather than something as serious as seizures. I tried walking along our fence line until our mastiff left one too many nasty surprises in my path, sigh! I like the ideas Susan and Deeli mentioned. Just put on some jazzy music and walk the length of your house. That sounds simple enough. Of course, lacking hand weights, I'd prob carry something of similar weight. Alternatively, I could always just lug my suitcase-sized casette Talking Book machine back and forth... playing a book while walking, of course!
I know that there are professional trainers on here, but I was wondering, could you train a family dog (6 years old in June and a great nose) to smell out an oncoming seizure? My one year old son has been on medication for seizures for six months, and had his first cluster a few nights ago.
I would try two things. First, I would try contacting the American Kennel Club to see if there is anything that they can do to assist you. The other thing I would do would be to go online and, in your search bar, type in "seizure dogs" or "assistance dogs." Good luck!
