It Was Just an Ordinary Saturday...

It was just an ordinary Saturday in August 2011. I was downstairs in the kitchen with my daughter (16) while my son (13) was upstairs playing on his Xbox. He had bought new headphones that day which he could plug into the TV so that only he could hear his game & not worry that it was too loud for the rest of the house.

It must have been around 7 PM when I heard a loud thud & crash. I ran up the stairs into my son's room to find him lying on the floor, rigid & convulsing uncontrollably. I quickly shouted to my daughter & got her to dial 999.

She had never done this before.

As I knelt down on the floor next to my son, I pulled him onto his side, which was difficult as he was rigid, I spoke to him to try & reassure him. I needed to prop him up best I could so that he didn't suffocate or vomit. He was completely incoherent, moaning & his eyes rolling in his head. He had banged his chin on the table in his room, which too had fallen over, & had a red mark forming.

My daughter was still on the phone, doing brilliantly, speaking to the paramedics. They had dispatched an ambulance & a paramedic car.

My son started to relax after about three minutes & I was able to place him in the recovery position, still talking to him when the paramedics arrived. They took down all details relevant to the situation & monitored my son for a few minutes allowing him to relax further before the ambulance arrived.

My son still couldn't speak & was still incoherent.

The ambulance arrived & it was decided that they would take my son to hospital as he had never had a seizure before & he would need to be checked. As we attempted to stand my son up he vomited, which was a side effect of a seizure. We were taken to the hospital & stayed overnight where he was put on a monitor for observation.

He was now able to speak again but had no memory of what had happened.

At this point, he couldn't be classed as epileptic, even though the seizure was a grand mal (Tonic-Clonic), because it may have been a one-off. You have to have had two seizures to be classed epileptic.

We were told that if he had a year without a seizure, then it was probably a one-off.

Fingers crossed for a whole year then!

In the morning, he was discharged & sent home.

As you can imagine, the upcoming days were spent on high alert. Anywhere my son went people had to be vigilant, especially at school, his friends had to be made aware. Just in case it happened again & to ensure they knew what to do.

A year passed. Great! The summer was over with no reoccurrences.

But then...

In September 2012, as my son was laying on his bed in the evening, he started banging on the wall to his sister's room. She got really cross & got up to go in his room. Luckily, she did because that was when she found him convulsing on his bed & he had turned completely blue. She screamed for me & I ran into his room & sat next to him while she dialed 999 again! I pulled him onto his side again & talked to him reassuringly while his color returned & waited for the ambulance again. He was again taken to hospital & referred to the epilepsy nurse, given a pediatric appointment to see a consultant & would most likely have medication.

During both seizures, I seemed to go into control mode & stay focused on what needed to be done at the time. However, when I actually stopped to reflect on what had happened, I felt entirely helpless. How did this happen & why?

My son was diagnosed with generalized idiopathic epilepsy in the October 2012 & prescribed Epilim. His diagnosis means there are no definite triggers for the seizures.