Humorous? Yes. Humorous.
There are many serious aspects to having epilepsy--to having seizures. It is not a joke.
Yet, there have been precious moments--precious in their absurdity. Neurologists have an amazing sense of humor. They call it bedside manner.
The same neurologist, who told public television viewers this week that people with epilepsy foam at the mouth, once asked me, "how long did the seizure last."
I went into the neurologist following the seizure to have my blood levels checked. Did my medication levels need to be increased or decreased, so as to prevent future seizures? I understood the reason behind his question. He had known me for some time. He knew I lived alone. Knowing that, he still asked, "How long did the seizure last?"
A part of me was tempted to say, "Well, let's see, I looked at the clock and it said 6:40am, and I started seizing. I looked at the clock at 6:42am, and I stopped seizing. Gees. I guess I should have looked. After all, I was just lying on the floor. I wasn't doing anything at the time."
Come on, give me a break. I had a few more pressing things on my mind at the time.
"Get down to the ground. Get away from things I could grasp onto." I chanted to myself.
Equally humorous to the neurologist's question is my subsequent behavior. Since that time, I make sure to look at the clock when I feel a seizure coming on, and once again when the seizure stops. If I am lucky, my exhausted brain, and my memory will not be so impaired as to prevent me from remembering the length of the seizure. I try to be a compliant patient:) Sometimes, I go overboard:)
But, far more humorous than that incident happened several years later. I was in a neurologist's waiting room. A different neurologist. I was awaiting an appointment with him. Suddenly, I started to have a seizure. Fellow patients knew precisely what to do, and went into action calmly. The neurologist was called. He came out to the waiting room.
"Are you OK?" he asked.
"Am I OK? Sure, I always wanted to come to your office and have a seizure! Am I OK? Have you ever seen a seizure before? Am I OK!" I thought.
In my 40+ years of experience with seizures, that remains my favorite seizure experience.
..."that remains my favorite seizure experience." Wow, never thought you could play favorites with your seizures. But that one is pretty funny. (You know, when we received training on how to respond to seizures at Camp Courage, we were told specifically to ask the person "Are you okay?" Inane, but the response (or lack thereof) was a way to gauge what to do next. It's kind of like asking the question to a person who is choking. You know that if they can't answer, a Heimlich may be in order.)
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, glad to see you find humor in such circumstances.