Tag: epilepsy

The More Things Stay The Same

The only thing that is constant is change. ~Heraclitus of Ephesus

In many ways, our life is constantly changing. We meet new people and have new experiences. There are new projects at work. The changing season is bringing cooler temperatures and color to the trees. Things look different than they did a few months ago.

My son started third grade and has a new teacher, a new aide, and is meeting new kids in his class. He’s in a different place than he was this time last year. He’s a year older. He’s on different medications with different benefits and side effects.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. ~Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

But even with so many things changing, the world looks very much the same.

In spite of the new medications, my son is still seizing. He still labors physically and mentally through the impact of those seizures and the many medications he takes to try to control them.

In spite of the new grade, teacher and aide, the school is still not set up for him to succeed. He still cannot physically or mentally make it through the day. We’re having to explain and defend ourselves again this year, just like we do every year.

In many ways, my son’s life changes so much that it’s unpredictable. But after a while, even that becomes expected. It becomes the same. A change for us would be stability. A change for us would be knowing what to expect from one moment to the next.

But there is no way to control what that looks like. We could find ourselves stuck at the bottom instead of at the top. He could always be seizing. He could always be at the mercy of the cruel side effects of the medicine that keeps his brain from losing control. So, at least for today, I welcome change. Because, as long as things keep changing, there is always hope that things will change for the better.

I Don’t Have The Answers

Every day, I wake up, head to the computer, and write about my life as the father of an amazing child who has epilepsy. I’ve been doing it for more than three years. But I don’t feel like I have any more answers now than I did when I started.

When I write, it’s from the perspective of a father trying to work out his thoughts and emotions on the page. I am not an expert. Wisdom comes from hindsight but we’re still in the thick of it. And every day I realize more and more of how much I don’t know.

I don’t know how to minimize his pharmaceutical side effects. I don’t know how long he’ll be on the ketogenic diet. I don’t know whether there is something out there we haven’t tried. I don’t know what new medicine or technology is on the horizon that will help. I don’t know how to prepare him for the world with epilepsy. I don’t know what to do to get my son to stop seizing. I don’t know if he ever will.

An expert would have answers. An expert would know what to do. An expert would speak from the perspective of someone who has been through it. They know how the story ends or how the tension resolves. I don’t have any of those things.

But here is what I do know. I know that I love my son more than anything. I know my wife and I are doing everything we can to keep him whole and to give him the best life that we can. I know that I need to be the best man and father for him. I know we need to take each moment as it comes and make the best choice we can with the information that we have. I know we have this moment right now, and I know that nothing else is guaranteed.

Safe And Sound

It was another rough night. My son had a seizure shortly after going to bed and at least three the next morning. Fortunately, he was sleeping in our bed. It’s easier to catch the seizures and take care of him when he is with us.

Lately, he started doing this thing where, after he has a seizure, he’ll sit up and try to climb out of bed. He’s not awake, it’s more of an electrical impulse that triggers the circuits in his brain that signal him to move. We comfort him during the seizure and then perform early morning Aikido and redirect his impulse to move in the direction of his pillow. Within a few seconds, he is back asleep.

I went through the process for two of his seizures that morning. Comfort, Aikido, sleep. After the last one, I laid in bed with my eyes open and stared at the ceiling. My mind drifted to the question that I still can’t face.

What would happen if we weren’t there? Who would be there to comfort him? Who would be there to keep him safe?

The idea of him doing this alone seems impossible. The idea of him never being able to be on his own is heartbreaking. The thought that I will someday not be here to take care of him, to keep him safe, and to comfort him is what keeps me awake.

The early morning mind is cruel. It is also calculating. It takes advantage of my incoherence to pose unanswerable questions when my defenses are down. It plants unanswerable questions and then sits back to watch the show.

The two solutions I usually come up with are curing epilepsy or becoming immortal. One is just as likely as the next but neither is likely be to solved in my lifetime. And so I am left with the fear of the future. Not for my sake, but for his. Because I was supposed to be the one that took care of him, that showed him how to be a good man and sent him into the world to make his own way.

But I don’t know how to do that when I watch his body seize over and over. The more seizures he has, the more impossible it seems that he’ll be able to make his own way. I’m fighting back the inevitable reality that no matter what I do, I may fail.

I hope I’m wrong.

But even if I’m not, I’ll never stop fighting.