Keisha Page

Since epilepsy causes the electrical signals in your brain to misfire, the EEG is the perfect test for determining whether or not epilepsy is currently active in your brain. And the entire time, while I've been helping Roan on his journey, the weight of the epilepsy diagnosis sits on my shoulders. When the best I could hope for was less seizure activity (at one point, he was having hundreds of absence seizures per day, so being down to a dozen or so a day was a vast improvement).Last month, on June 14, we began a clock that I thought we would never start. And if it doesn't, then we will accept that and move forward, making sure that we're giving Roan the tools to function as an adult with epilepsy and autism.

She hadn’t realized the depth of how much she hadn’t been there for me when he died. I remember talking to my aunt, my grandfather, and another close friend, but I don’t remember any of the words they said. Larry’s forgiveness came on a long cold night, when I was up late writing, several years after my dad died. I’m not quite sure what he’s trying to tell me, but I’m listening.

They don’t give us 100% control, and his current side effects include a tiny appetite (but better than the tremor and hair loss he experienced from previous meds). It’s better than him starting the same sentence ten times because he’s clustering so quickly he doesn’t realize he’s already said those words. Today he’s sitting in the living room while I’m in my bedroom, watching a show he loves on Netflix, after doing some typing exercises for Occupational Therapy, and his chores, which include putting away dishes. He may need services for the rest of his life, but what we have today is 1000 times better than what we had a year ago, and that wouldn’t be possible without meds.

Sleep in and of itself becomes a form of self-care, simply because it’s something we can grab in short spurts when a partner gets home or a friend offers to sit with the kids. Sleep in and of itself becomes a form of self-care, simply because it’s something we can grab in short spurts when a partner gets home or a friend offers to sit with the kids. Date night with the husband is almost impossible, simply because there’s a lack of people willing to take on Yoda’s care. So I will continue to feel bruised until there’s some point where I can get some extra sleep, or lock myself in my room to watch Handmaid’s Tale while I fold the laundry, or something else that can take my mind away from the every day struggles.