Living with a seizure disorder
Disabled, but not unable

"Good morning mom", I say as I head for the kitchen beginning my daily get ready for school routine. As an active 15 year old I am a hyper little girl, below average in size and full of dreams. My thoughts the past few months have centered around getting my drivers license, my Step Dad has promised me a convertible Volkswagen Cabriolet as reward for my grade point average never falling below 3.8. Life is so good, I am on top of the world every moment of every day and still I reach higher.

Nearly halfway to the kitchen and in an instant my life changes forever. No warning, no symptoms, no history; I just fell unconscious. My last memory was of an upright view of the living room, why am I on the floor and why is Mom crying? I am in a daze, nothing makes sense right now and I have never been so scared.

They say life is full of change and that each day is the first day of the rest of your life, the scene I have just described was the first day of the rest of my life as a disabled person. I went on to have nearly a dozen petite mal seizures that day alone and it truly only got worse. I remember my first doctor appointment, I had never seen a seizure, never heard of this before. The doctor we went to was less than professional when he told my mom, "It's normal for teenage girls to pass out". Without a second thought or any tests he went with that theory and sent me home to be "normal", passing out about every 10-30 minutes.

It wasn't too long before my mom couldn't stand it, her perfect little girl had become a shell of a human. I had missed weeks of school, my grades were dropping and I looked like I was cheating death. Having that many seizures in a day is too much for the human body and mind to handle. My mother made me an appointment with another doctor, the only other doctor in our small town. While in the waiting room waiting to be seen it happened again, I had a seizure with doctors and nurses as witness. This was the most embarrassing moment of my life at that point but it did make them take it seriously. The doctor carried me into his emergency area and immediately got on the phone to the hospital. I was admitted and transported directly to what would be my room for the next week.

During that week I was put through scores of tests and constant observation, I also learned many valuable lessons. I met with different doctors every day, some very polite others who needed to take a

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