Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes patients to experience seizures. It's a very scary illness because victims wake up from the seizures not knowing what just happened to them, and it can cause irreversible damage to the brain, which affects its ability to produce thoughts, feelings, and memories. As a result of the drugs taken to prevent seizures, some victims have a difficult time comprehending what was said to them and have to write it out on paper and break it into simpler clauses in order to understand the meaning of each one. I can't imagine how challenging it would be for students to excel in school; reading, memorizing, and doing simple math problems would be so much harder for them. One might even have the feeling that they're dream of going to an Ivy League or UC school would be taken away due to the effects caused by the drugs and the disease itself.Another devastating reality is that one could die from an epileptic seizure. It must be really frightening for patients to live each day in constant fear and anxiety, wondering if their next seizure could kill them and also experiencing the unpleasant effects of the medications they take, such as weight loss, weight gain, and throwing up. Therefore, patients must be brave in order to accept that truth and ask oneself, "Have I really lived my life as I wanted to?" I don't think anyone deserves to have that burden placed upon them, especially if the victims are kids who haven't lived long enough to be able to answer that question for themselves.
Even if a person experiences only one seizure and has a small risk in ever experiencing another, the disease could have a great negative impact on one's life entirely, such as a person's career. In the Newsweek article "In the Grip of the Unknown," by Jerry Adler and Eliza Gray, Dr. Orrin Devinsky of New York University says, "Imagine you come to see me after a single seizure, just one. I examine you and do an EEG, an MRI and everything looks good, so I say, you're in luck, there's only a 20 percent chance you'll have another one. But that could affect your life tremendously. Say you're a truckdriver, or a surgeon. Or if you're a commercial pilot- well, that's done."
Though I understand that some people with jobs that require dexterity or operation of a vehicle and who are diagnosed with epilepsy would be fired for the reason that they are endangering themselves and others, I really think it's unfair for them. These innocent people didn't choose the disease, so I think that the government should help them out by giving them some sort of pension for a certain amount of time if they have been fired and are having difficulty looking for work. However, I don't think this should cause patients to stop looking for employment and simply live off of the pension unless they're illness is at the point where they can't function regularly enough to work or at all. I also believe that shifting careers would add on to the hardships that patients face. For example if a pilot diagnosed with epilepsy loses his job and later finds work at a department store, how large a difference that would be from his previous career. Besides the drastic change in salary, that patient might conclude that all the time and effort spent studying in college in order to obtain a degree would be a waste since the person would have to leave that learned profession behind. If I was in their situation, I would definitely ask myself that same question too and might even be depressed and angry if I can't work as the career that I had chosen and dreamt about.
However, the advice that I would give for those people who have lost their jobs due to the illness would be to move on. I would tell them that they should try to look for other jobs that involve the methods or knowledge used from their previous profession. For example, a surgeon diagnosed with epilepsy could still practice medicine by working as a general physician rather than performing surgery, since he would risk killing a patient if he or she experienced a seizure while performing an operation. In this way the a person with epilepsy could accept their illness and learn to adjust one's lifestyle around it so that he or she wouldn't be harming himself or herself or other people while working. What are some other things that patients could do to help cope with epilepsy? Also, isn't that moving image of an MRI of a human head awesome?
For more information on epilepsy, click on the link below:
Here's information on some alternative treatments, besides medications, for the disease.
Learning about the brain is fun, huh?
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin who has epilepsy. Before reading this article, I didn't really know anything about epilepsy. I did watch a movie where a young prince had epilepsy, but that's pretty much it.
You bring up quite an issue, that this disorder causes problems that are hard to fix. I think most of all, people with any form of sickness need support. Nobody wants to feel alone or misunderstood when they're going through something.
-daisyfriend
I truly respect people who try to go on living their lives to the best of their ability, despite their diseases. It would be really hard for me to go on living day to day knowing that with one seizure I could be dead.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is unfair that they are not able to hold certain positions due to their health.