"I love this show..it's soo awesome" Avnita texted her friend, Suchi. It was almost 1:50 a.m.
Avnita was watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. She loved the show and could watch it for hours! She also had the habit of sitting up late in the night, chatting, listening to songs or reading novels.She rarely slept before 3! After that she browsed through a few channels. They weren't much strict at home either, she had just turned 18, and deserved a few extra liberties!
Channel 128 HBO: Rocky 2--> not interested.
Channel 129 Pix: 102 Dalmatians--> not seen. Watch watch watch- said the voice in her head!
Few bars of chocolate in one hand, a novel to read during the breaks, her mobile lying by her side, and she got her source of entertainment for the entire night. Her dad did come and call her a few times, but never persuaded her as it was vacations after-all...maybe he should have, he felt later!
She went off to sleep at around 4. Got up at 6, restless. She went ahead to grab the toothbrush and the toothpaste.
A jitter and the next thing she sees, her toothbrush and the paste were lying down. "What happened?!" she wondered! Ignoring it, she went ahead and brushed. Over the past few days, those jitters were recurrent, appeared periodically and randomly. Some days, she spilt the tea all over the place.. some days, it was something else! At times, she found herself staring inattentively and unusually at something. And each time, all she could think was, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?". It was scary, though she pretended that it didn't bother her. Until one day, when she finally confided to her parents about what had been happening to her from the past few weeks. An appointment with the general physician, and then a neurologist, and the next thing she knew she had loads of wires stuck to her scalp and was all ready for an EEG, which revealed that she suffered from- Epilepsy. Juvenile Myclonic Epilepsy.
"Huge name!" she thought to herself. He added that, perhaps, she had these seizures before too, but hadn't noticed them until lately. She was told that her late nights, her long hours on the computer, T.V., visit to a discotheque (even if she ever wanted to) should all be avoided. She tried to remember, what was her age? Right, 18. She had a whole life ahead of her, and that moment she had to make a decision- about how she wanted to take the news. She could either crib over it or get over it and move on with life. Her parents regretted for not having noticed it earlier! They empathized, worried and cursed their fate. Avnita knew time healed everything and she would one day learn to live with it too. But the question remains, was it anyone's fault anyway? The answer is NO! Because this form of epilepsy is said to be idiopathic, i.e. has no known cause.
A disease is something nobody really wishes for, however, today the world around us replete with people suffering from disorders- some visible, while, some not so visible. While awareness about disorders such as diabetes, cancer and AIDS have increased to a certain extent, neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, Autism, Dyslexia and soo many more still remain unknown to the masses. There exists about 600 neurological disorders. And in a developing country like ours, most of the time, due to lack of awareness, the neurological disorders are regarded as "madness" or "behavior due to possession by demons". I agree, it ain't easy to make everyone aware about everything. But can't we atleast make an effort? If we do maybe, thousands of other Avnitas too, will gather the courage to look at life with a new perspective. I say this, because, we need to remember disorders do not see money, status or age..they can happen to anyone, anytime. We need not become overly obsessed and panic over small things, but there is no harm in being aware, so that next time we do not ignore even minor recurrent head-aches or back-pains.
Our body always gives us a warning that something is wrong, we must learn to identify and listen to it!
The reason why I chose to write on this topic was, because this is all that I've been reading about in the past few hours:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/epilepsy-research-brings-award-to-australian-expert-20120329-1w17i.html
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/community-news/38383-epilepsy-is-not-madnessneurologist
http://theadvocate.com/utility/homepagestories/2419751-129/a-teens-take-for-march
http://epilepsyfoundation.org/resources/featurestory/John-Olsons-Story.cfm
http://epilepsyfoundation.org/aboutepilepsy/faq.cfm
P.S.: The purpose of this post was NOT to scare anyone! It was solely to bring to light about the existence of epilepsy-probably, a highly misunderstood disorder, just like many others, for that matter.
Regards,
Rithika
Avnita was watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. She loved the show and could watch it for hours! She also had the habit of sitting up late in the night, chatting, listening to songs or reading novels.She rarely slept before 3! After that she browsed through a few channels. They weren't much strict at home either, she had just turned 18, and deserved a few extra liberties!
Channel 128 HBO: Rocky 2--> not interested.
Channel 129 Pix: 102 Dalmatians--> not seen. Watch watch watch- said the voice in her head!
Few bars of chocolate in one hand, a novel to read during the breaks, her mobile lying by her side, and she got her source of entertainment for the entire night. Her dad did come and call her a few times, but never persuaded her as it was vacations after-all...maybe he should have, he felt later!
She went off to sleep at around 4. Got up at 6, restless. She went ahead to grab the toothbrush and the toothpaste.
A jitter and the next thing she sees, her toothbrush and the paste were lying down. "What happened?!" she wondered! Ignoring it, she went ahead and brushed. Over the past few days, those jitters were recurrent, appeared periodically and randomly. Some days, she spilt the tea all over the place.. some days, it was something else! At times, she found herself staring inattentively and unusually at something. And each time, all she could think was, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?". It was scary, though she pretended that it didn't bother her. Until one day, when she finally confided to her parents about what had been happening to her from the past few weeks. An appointment with the general physician, and then a neurologist, and the next thing she knew she had loads of wires stuck to her scalp and was all ready for an EEG, which revealed that she suffered from- Epilepsy. Juvenile Myclonic Epilepsy.
"Huge name!" she thought to herself. He added that, perhaps, she had these seizures before too, but hadn't noticed them until lately. She was told that her late nights, her long hours on the computer, T.V., visit to a discotheque (even if she ever wanted to) should all be avoided. She tried to remember, what was her age? Right, 18. She had a whole life ahead of her, and that moment she had to make a decision- about how she wanted to take the news. She could either crib over it or get over it and move on with life. Her parents regretted for not having noticed it earlier! They empathized, worried and cursed their fate. Avnita knew time healed everything and she would one day learn to live with it too. But the question remains, was it anyone's fault anyway? The answer is NO! Because this form of epilepsy is said to be idiopathic, i.e. has no known cause.
Our body always gives us a warning that something is wrong, we must learn to identify and listen to it!
The reason why I chose to write on this topic was, because this is all that I've been reading about in the past few hours:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/epilepsy-research-brings-award-to-australian-expert-20120329-1w17i.html
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/community-news/38383-epilepsy-is-not-madnessneurologist
http://theadvocate.com/utility/homepagestories/2419751-129/a-teens-take-for-march
http://epilepsyfoundation.org/resources/featurestory/John-Olsons-Story.cfm
http://epilepsyfoundation.org/aboutepilepsy/faq.cfm
P.S.: The purpose of this post was NOT to scare anyone! It was solely to bring to light about the existence of epilepsy-probably, a highly misunderstood disorder, just like many others, for that matter.
Regards,
Rithika
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