This is part 2 of the Epilepsy Awareness Month daily facts, which will cover days 16 through 30. You may have already seen these if you are following James on Facebook. If you missed part 1, or would like to review the facts for days 1 through 15, it can be found here:
Epilepsy Awareness Month: Days 1 – 15
Thank you, Candlelight Concert for Epilepsy Awareness, for creating these images to help raise awareness about epilepsy.
Day 16
It kind of reboots your brain! James also has a VNS which shocks his brain every minute at a certain “level”.
Day 17
James got the official epilepsy diagnosis when he was diagnosed with infantile spasms (IS).
Day 18
While we’re not 100% sure these facts are correct, they do help put things into perspective. If these facts are indeed correct, epilepsy is 3 times more common than autism.
Day 19
Unfortunately, we do not know what triggers James’ seizures.
Day 20
Seizures are horrible to watch, no matter if it’s a human or animal.
Day 21
This is why so many groups are trying to get better padding in helmets of football players… from pee wee to professional!
Day 22
Stacy had a professor in college that corrected her class on day 1… “he is a child with Autism, not an autistic child”. The same goes for every disability out there. James has epilepsy; he is not an epileptic child.
Day 23
Because the below figure is sourced from the US Center for Disease and Control (CDC), I believe this is for the United States only.
Day 24
We pray that James does not have a horrible seizure and consider him lucky that they are little and fast! We will continue to look for a treatment until they are gone, no matter how small they are. We want James to be completely seizure free.
Day 25
James and all of his friends who have to suffer with seizures LOVE hugs and kisses!! Don’t shy away from anyone especially a special needs child.
Day 26
It is just not physically possible to do so.
Day 27
James’ seizures are becoming rather hard to control with medication. He has a VNS in his chest, which is kind of like a pacemaker for the brain, and is on 2 anti-seizure meds, but we are really hoping to start CBD oil with him in early 2016.
Day 28
James does not have Dravet Syndrome, but we have several friends whose little ones suffer from Dravet on a daily basis. A few of them have passed away at a young age.
Day 29
We know way too many little ones that have passed away from seizures, or a combination of seizures and something else. This number to way to high!
Day 30
I hope you have learned a little bit about epilepsy (and James) through these little tidbits. If you want to learn more, I will include some links below.
Here are a few good resources to check out if you want to learn more about epilepsy:
https://www.cdc.gov/epilepsy/index.html
