Tag Archives: epilepsy

Iowa Court Says Disabilities Act Covers Severe Allergies

An Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that children and adults who have severe allergies are protected from discrimination by the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. Those who have epilepsy are also protected by it. This decision is different than a previous one by an Iowa district court. In 2011, Shannon Knudsen sued Tiger Tots Community Child Care Center in Madrid, Iowa. The reason for the lawsuit was because the Child Care facility declined to accept her child specifically because the child had a tree nut allergy. The case was heard by an Iowa district court. The court ruled that the … Continue reading →

You Are Your Child’s Best Advocate

When you have a child with any special needs you as the parent quickly become the best advocate for your child. Many children with special needs have some educational challenges and this can become a problem. For example if your child has diabetes and has to leave the class numerous times in the day to test their blood sugar, get insulin or just get a snack to keep their blood sugar up they are missing classroom time and they are missing the instruction that is taking place while they take care of their illness. Children with epilepsy may miss classes … Continue reading →

Start of School

With the start of school happening this week I thought I would jump ahead a bit in my story. Now with a 4th and 6th grader with epilepsy comes having to prepare all their new teachers for the worst case scenario. When you tell a teacher that a child in their class has epilepsy their eyes get big like the OH NO what is going to happen look. When people think of epilepsy they automatically think of the movies where you see a person violently flailing on the ground and to be honest that scares most people. Heck it scares … Continue reading →

Two Kids With Epilepsy

So my middle son has been admitted to the hospital for what we thought was possibly a stroke, his face is droopy and looks like a stroke patient. Turns out he had Bells Palsy and they think this could be caused by a seizure. So with one child with epilepsy already the idea of having a second child with epilepsy is a bit over whelming. I will admit when he was asleep in his bed I did lay there in the dark and cried just a bit. In the morning they ran an MRI and an EEG on him to … Continue reading →

Life With an Epileptic Child

After the first convulsive seizure and our first cluster seizure we were beginning to wonder if this was how our life was going to be from now on. We wondered if this kept up what his life would be when he got older. Would he be able to get his license when he got older? Would he get married and have kids? He was still very young, not even four and he was having to go get valium in his behind to stop seizures. Now this was not quite what I pictured when I thought of our family but this … Continue reading →

Cluster Seizures

The day our son had his first convulsive seizure really hit us hard. I had never been so scared before in my life. You may see seizures on tv or in the movies but when you see them in person it is so much more scary. When it is happening with your child it makes the reality so much scarier than any horror film could even be. We had a problem with friends and family not wanting to spend time with him when we were not around before the first convulsive seizure. I am dreading having to tell anyone that … Continue reading →

Our Son Has Epilepsy So What

SO our son is three and on daily medication to control seizures, but he is alive and otherwise healthy. We were adjusting to the new normal life that we were going to have. WE did not know if or when he would outgrow this disorder but we could make it through. The response we got in the beginning from people we told was rather surprising. When people found out that he had seizures we stopped getting calls for play dates, sleepovers and outings. I do not know if people were scared of him having a seizure or what they may … Continue reading →

Telling People About Epilepsy Diagnosis

What was asked of us when we told her surprised me. She asked if we wanted to return him instead of adopting him!!! I am still shocked to this day that I as asked. What kind of parents would we be if we returned him to foster care? Would a biological mother turn her child over to CPS if they got the same diagnosis? We fell in love with our kids even before we met them I cannot even imagine giving him back. After we notified CPS we had to tell our family, it would have been a little easier … Continue reading →

Our Son Has Epilepsy

We just had our first sleep deprived EEG and we are headed to the pediatric neurologist. I already had a bad feeling in my stomach after seeing all the spikes on the EEG machine. The doctor walks in the room and he had some printouts in his hand. I remember this feeling very well because this was the moment before our son had epilepsy. The doctor went through all these technical terms explaining that our son was having abnormal seizure brain waves showing as spikes on the EEG. That all four areas of the brain were affected and they were … Continue reading →

Our First EEG

So we have had our 3 year old son up all night, actually he did get to sleep two hours, and we are headed to have our son tested for epilepsy. This is a whole new area for us, we have only been parents for a few months and now we are having one of the kids test for epilepsy. It is very scary for us to walk into having my oldest son tested for epilepsy. I honestly did not know what the testing would be like and for me it was scary I cannot even imagine it from the … Continue reading →