Epilepsy Options

[Jeffie]

So I have been going out with my girlfriend for 3 months now, I am very happy with her. Well she has epilepsy and I wanted to learn a little more about it, like things to do if she had a seizure, and what causes it. Would you guys help me find out as much as possible about Epilepsy, because I feel clueless about it... I am kind of new to this forum.(She got me into this so yea.. x])

[tokyo-rose]

I Googled it for you, and there's a website called Epilepsy.com. From there, I clicked on this link. Check out Epilepsy 101 for the basics, then look around the rest of the site for more information.

I don't think anyone here is extremely knowledgeable about this condition, so it's best if you research it yourself. I wouldn't want anyone to mislead you. =)

Welcome to CreateBlog, btw!

[Jeffie]

Thanks, I will read into that :]

[karmakiller]

There's lots of good resources on the internet, just make sure that you look into a few of them to get a better idea... because you can't take everything for 100% truth. I'm glad that you're interested in this and want to learn more. Good luck.

[eeonz]

Try to find out the basic first aid stuff for if she has a seizure whilst you're around - to be honest you're best of talking to her about it.

What i got taught on a baisc first aid course was:

-Get them on the ground before they drop - so if you can tell thats shes about to seizure, lie her down - or at least catch her!

-Support the head with something soft (hoody, pillow, school bag etc) - wedging your foot under her head will do it if you don't have time to grab something.

-Clear the area of anything she might hurt herself on - tables chairs etc.

-Don't try to stop a seizure by holding her down or anything daft like that. Definetly don't put anything in her mouth - they used to encourage epileptics to bite down on things for some reason, people will just bite through it though most of the time.

-If the seizure is long (10 minutes) or doesn't stop, call an ambulance.

-No food or drink afterwards for a little while. Check airways ect afterwards, recovery position if appropriate.

Thats all for the most extreme kind of seizure. Some epileptics just tend to fade out of awareness - don't respond to anything etc, then just come round and don't remember anything and feel dead tired. Try to find out how it affects her - she might only have seizures at night etc.

Lastly, as you can imagine, it can be quite embarassing. Epileptics can lose total control of their bodies whilst having a seizure, including bladder. So try to keep people from crowding round, reassure her etc. She'll be dead tired afterwards as well - afterall they are extremely forceful muscle contractions - best bet is to let her parents know what happened, then let her rest up.

Best thing to do is talk to her. Not all epileptics have big seizures requiring first aid. Find out what normally happens to her and how she wants you to deal with it.

[karmakiller]

^ I must admit it can pretty scary the first time you see someone have a seizure. I had friend who fell down and hit his head quite hard (he was goofing around, like an idiot) and everyone else was freaking out and scared and decided that they best thing to do was get away from him. No one wanted to grab his head, because they were freaking out. So I was left to do that. And he's much bigger than me...

Sorry for butting in with an useless story.

[eeonz]

Well done for doing it though. Like i said, best thing to do is protect the head and the fastest way of doing that is jamming your foot underneath it. You're n ot trying to stop it moving, but to stop it hitting something hard when it does.