Communicating about early symptoms of health problems

When I was 21 I started having small seizures. My arm would suddenly jut out while I brushed my teeth, or my legs would give out for a moment while I got ready in the morning.

At the time I didn’t know they were seizures. I just thought the strange jerking movements my body did in the morning was a result of stress and lack of sleep. Even though I knew my body was acting strange, I convinced myself that I would go back to normal if I slept better.

I did not tell anyone about the symptoms I was having.

I had never had any health problems before then. I also had never known someone with health problems, so I was completely out of touch with the concept that something could be seriously wrong with me.

The seizures progressed as time went on. As I was getting ready for the first day of school at university I dropped things I was holding because my hands pulsed from seizures. My legs temporarily gave out but I caught myself.

My boyfriend, who was living with me at the time, witnessed all the strange things I was doing and urged me to stay home. I insisted that I had to go to school, so he walked to school with me.

All I can remember after that moment was waking up in an ambulance with a nurse frantically asking me questions like what my name was and if I remembered my birthday. He was trying to keep me alert. I was scared out of my mind, but blacked out again.

Eventually I woke up in a room at the hospital. My boyfriend was leaning against the wall in front of my bed with the most disappointed face I had ever seen in my life.

A doctor spoke with me and said I had a grand mal seizure, where the person collapses on the ground and convulses. He handed me a printed document that had a brief explanation of what a seizure was and recommended that I see a neurologist.

Unfortunately he did not clue me in on how serious seizures actually are. I went home, read online that grand mal seizures often only happen once in a person’s life, and stubbornly assumed I would never have one again.

Long story short, after multiple grand mal seizures over the next few years, one of which included another ambulance ride, I finally saw a neurologist. He diagnosed me with epilepsy and prescribed me medication. Thankfully the medication worked and I have been seizure-free for over five years.

When I look back on these challenging years, I really wish I had told my parents about the symptoms from the beginning rather than convince myself that I was fine.

The only way I think I would have reported the symptoms is by knowing general information about abnormal body behavior and how various illnesses can seriously limit one’s ability to live life. But I had never had any kind of discussion about how to address abnormal body behavior.

If I had reported the symptoms earlier and been diagnosed, I could have prevented having grand mal seizures. More importantly, I could have prevented the anxiety that came after the seizures. In some ways I think the anxiety has been even more crippling than the seizures.

I feel like I have never really been the same person since having seizures because of anxiety. I have always had a sense of fear of waking up early because I think I might have a seizure again, and sometimes even go through a panic attack while driving because I think I might have a seizure. I do not feel like the care free person I used to be before the seizures began. This could also be partly because of the side effects of the epileptic medication I am taking, which anxiety is noted as one of the primary side effects.

I am sharing this story because I want to motivate people to communicate more about early symptoms of health problems rather than ignore them, like I did. This is an important subject for everyone, but something I find particularly important for children and young people since they are so young in life and can prevent the development of a major illness.

But what are symptoms to take note of? One of the better websites I have found that discusses health problems in children is HealthyChildren.org. There is a section titled “Health Issues” that lists information about various health conditions, including symptoms and how the conditions are typically treated.

I hope to not trigger worry and anxiety in parents by encouraging them to read more into symptoms of health problems, but rather to simply be more aware of symptoms and to address health problems early on. Not only does addressing a health problem early on prevent the illness from developing, but it also reduces the psychological impact on a child who experiences illness.