Epilepsy-The College Years

This week I celebrate the 10 year anniversary of my brain surgery. So, I bring you a series of blogs that refelct my journey leading up to the surgery. At age 18, I left home for college. I didn't just go up the street, I traveled 17 hours away from home to beautiful Southern California. This would be the first time I would be away from home with a seizure disorder not under supervision. I took college in stride. I welcomed the freedom and thoroughly enjoyed the overall experience. The seizures were pretty mellow through college and weren't really a major distraction. I hid the fact that I had what was diagnosed as "partial complex seizures". A few close friends were aware of the meds I was on, and I only explained it if it was necessary. With partial complex seizures, I would not convulse, but I would have these "dizzy spells" were I would have my short term memory affected for no more than 20 seconds. I was on medication and if there were side effects, which vomiting was one, I would normally be able to play it off as if I was sick, or ate something. No harm, no foul. If I did have a seizure, I was able to play those off as well. I did visit the doctor on occasion when I returned home to Portland throughout college. Not much changed, but I did learn that I could function pretty well and hide my disorder. Throughout college I maintained great grades, was invovled in campus life on numerous levels, and managed to get through in 4 years. 4 years that were at the time the best 4 of my life. By the end of college a few friends knew that something wasn't right, but for the most part I managed to mask my disorder from even some of my closer friends. I did so out of fear that people would start to look for them and ask if I was having them, as I did. So, the plan was this- the less people know, the better.