Brain-storming

I would never have remotely thought that the likes of Vincent Van Gogh, Napoleon, Alfred Nobel, Joan of Arc, Alexander the Great,  Agatha Christie and Socrates  (to name but a few), shared something in common. But they did.

While many would consider them great figures, hero’s  or legends in their field, I don’t think many would’ve guessed that they also all suffered from epilepsy.

So I’m writing this, in the hope that some people may change their outlook on those who live with it.  And maybe, just maybe, remind others that people with epilepsy are not damaged goods, or kind of “retarded” in some freakish way.

Epilepsy is just a medical condition that is TOTALLY manageable with medication.  It is simply abnormal (I hate that word) electrical activity in the brain.  And while epilepsy may SOMETIMES be the resulting condition brought about by brain injury and/or brain damage from trauma, this doesn’t mean that everyone who sufferes from epilepsy IS brain damaged.

Mine came out of the blue one morning in 1993.  By the time I got to hospital I’d had another 3 seizures. 

The usual barrage of standard tests followed. The MRI, EEG, and lumbar puncture (which wasn’t nearly as painful as I’d heard). 

I was to stay flat on my back after having it done, but there was no way on this blue planet I was going to pee in a bedpan. So I got up.

BAAAAAAD idea.  I thought 20 tons of TNT had gone off in my head.  That’s what you get for trying to be clever.

But, after all the testing, all the results came back normal, except for the EEG. 

And there it was……a seismograph of my brain, showing this big peak in the middle of nowhere.  It was my “brain-quake” (as I like to call it), in black and white.  But this one, they said, was so small, I didn’t even know I’d had it.  They called that small? It looked like a magnitude 7 on the richter scale.

But here I am, 18 years later, and no worse for wear.   My small “brain-quakes” still show on the EEG, but they’re under control.  .  I’ve never had a seizure again, routinely take my meds, and now like to refer to myself as a natural at brainstorming.

So please, don’t stigmatise people with this.  We’re not retarded or freaks.

We’re normal.

In fact, going by history, we’re freakin GREAT, and  we have legends to prove it!