Sean2… At the time of my first witnessed Grand Mal seizure, I was drinking to the point of liver damage, which combined with the stress of treatment by some professors in grad school, caused the seizures to return. If I hadn’t had that seizure in public when I did (I was in denial about having had them nocturnally for a long time before), I would likely be dead or more severely impaired cognitively because I was still driving, and fell and hit my head many times when intoxicated or just dizzy from the nocturnals I was undoubtedly having. It had already taken a toll on my thinking. Today, I am finally learning to concentrate on the present, not spend my life dwelling on the past, and taking advantage of each ability I still possess for as long as it lasts! (It took me a long time to get here…)

This is a long trail but it leads to seizures. I was in an almost fatal accident from a seizure. From the accident, I screwed up my spine. Occasionally I have to get steroid shots in the spine but since the last set of shots was 7-8 years ago, they had to do an MRI to check on the spine. While looking at the MRI, they noticed my abdominal aorta was getting too big. They said if it bursts, it could kill me. As they were testing my heart to be sure I could handle the aorta surgery, they found blockage and said I needed a quintuple bypass. So the seizure led to the MRI that led to the two surgeries that saved my life.

Thanks be to God

I've quite often wondered the same or similar. Would I be married to whom I'm married and if I weren't married to that person would I be married at all, and where would I be living, etc. I wanted to join the navy and if I had, would I still be alive, what would my career have been and and so on. So yes, by not being able to join the navy because of my epilepsy, that could have saved my life.

Sean, you always look at the positive! Epilepsy has improved my life in that I appreciate life more. I appreciate each morning I wake up! I appreciate time with my children and precious granddaughters more. And while there are some stinkers out there, I appreciate that most people are kind and compassionate. Suffering and pain just causes us to come to the end of self and lean on our Father more. (And we find special folks like you along the way!)