Hush Medicine

The key to undersatanding the diagnoses of epilepsy is that no two of us is exactly alike. After more than forty-five years of being diagnosed with epilepsy the names of the types of seizures have changed.  My initial diagnosis was petit mal.

The reason why petit mal was my diagnosis was to distinguish it from grand mal. Grand mal seizures are more visible because a person often falls to the ground and shakes without the ability to respond. It is the type of seizure that is more often portrayed on television and in movies.

One of the reasons why it took so long to be diagnosed because during my puberty years, my seizures increased, because they happened mostly at night. These seizures are commonly known as nocturnal seizures. They were still petit mal, but they happened mostly at night.

Ocassionally, they would sneak into the day hours, especially during school. In fact, the first seizure that showed up was during English class. It rained that day. It was the perfect day to wear a rain coat, because during the seizure came urination. My excuse to the teacher and classmates was the wetness was from water from the raincoat. No one questioned it, much to my surprise, no one bullied me. 

The nocturnal seizures continued. There is something about English class that triggered my seizures. My high school had a curriculum that is more akin to one  of a college. While reading out loud

, ha. .With As a child, my favorite book was a folklore called “The Old Woman and Her Pig.” This story has been in my long-term memory since I was five years old.  The story is about an older woman who finds a penny on the floor. She decides that she will invest in buying a pig  with that penny. She encounters many objects, animals, and people  to help her get back home with the pig. All she needs is for the pig to jump over the sty so she can get home. Although she left during the day, she did not get home until night time. 

Nearly the end of the story, she encounters a cat. The old lady bribes the cat with a saucer of milk. She knows this is her final chance to get home. This is how the story ends:

(Read it a fast pace.)

“So, the cat began to chase the rat. The rat began to gnaw the rope. The rope began to hang the butcher. The butcher began to kill the ox. The ox began to drink the water. The water began to quench the fire. The fire began to burn the stick. The stick began to beat the dog. The dog began to bite the pig. The pig jumped over the sty and the old woman finally got home that night.”

It never occurred to me that the story would be a reflection of my life. The written story is very simple except quench. With each part of the journey came a picture to help me to understand the description of each action. Her only goal was to get home and enjoy her investment. The story does not tell if the pig was simply a bet or if she feasted upon bacon, ham, chops, spare ribs, or chitterlings.  When read at a faster pace, it is like a domino effect that makes no sense just for the old woman to get home. 

The first time, I had to take prescribe medicine on a daily basis was when I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Because doctors did not witness my seizures, they prescribed medicines based on my stories and descriptions of my seizure actvity. 

Unlike today, there were not as many options for prescribed medicines during my tenth grade year of school. With medicines come side effects. Hush Medicine is the best way to describe it.

Have you seen or heard a commercial that market a prescribed drug? The commercial describes how well the drug works on a specific diagnosis. But then here comes the demand to describe the side effects. All of those side effects fit into the category of Hush Medicine.

My inital doctors focused on what he neeed to do to prescribe to control the seizures. Control is the operative word. With the control, the seizures may decrease in length or how long they last.

The first medicine that was precribed to me was phenobarbital.  Yes, it was life changing. Like most medicines that have been prescribed for me, the most prominent side effects are daytime sleepiness, concentration, and depression.

Falling asleep in class was not a part of my character. However, by taking phenobarbital sleepiness creeped in during the day. The high school from which I graduated classified students by three categories. Either you were known to hang out on the front steps, back steps or the lunch room.

Front step students tended to be more of the rebellious type, yet it did not equate to their level of intelligence. They were also known to be involved with drugs and smoking. At the time it was easy to identify them because most students dressed in a preppy or clean cut.

Back step students were leaders, more astute in learning and often identified as being goody-two-shoes. Don’t get me wrong. Back step students also engaged in drugs and smoking. They did drugs and smoked wearing button down shirts, polo style shirts, and preppy shoes.

Whether a student was front step, back step or the lunch room, we respected one another. When falling asleep in class after taking pheonobarbital, some of my teachers mistook me as a student whose peers who socialized on the front steps.

Taking prescribed medicine led to my seeing other specialists or run back to my primary care physician (PCP).

When falling asleep in class

The nocturnal seizures did  not happen as much, but my hormones did not care.

Simple partial

Complex partial

Petit Mal

Migraine

Suicide

Learning Disability

Depression

Anxiety

Restless Leg Syndrome

Cognitive

Hypersomnia

Insomnia

Obesity

Sleep Apnea

Coronary Artery Disease

High Blood Pressure

Narcolepsy

Keloid

Supraventrucular premature beats

Acid Reflux

Knee Injury

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Hyperlipidemia

Tegretol, Lamictal, Gabentin, Clobazam, Topamx, Vimpat, Dilantin, Ativan, Neurontin