I was a healthy baby. Until I was five years old. Through the events that took place, I don't have a good memory of what happened, so I asked my Mother to tell it for me. So in the words of my Mom:
"At the age of 5 Brook had her first seizure. It was a Saturday morning and she did not seem to feel well but I wasn't worried because she had no fever. I gave her a bath thinking that may help her to feel better but during the time in the tub she began not responding to me and staring off to her right. I took her out of the tub and put her to bed, she then began foaming at the mouth. I yelled for her father to get the car and I climbed into the back seat with her. On the way to the hospital her whole body began to jerk and tense up. We made it to the hospital in under 5 minutes but by then my shirt was completely soaked from the foam coming from her mouth, and she was turning blue. The hospital staff quickly grabbed her and began to go to work. They put her on a machine to help her breath but because the doctors did not know what to do a decision was made to fly Brook to a medical center in Reno, Nevada. It was a very small plane. Enough room for the pilot, one nurse that would continuously squeeze a bag to help Brook breath, Brook and I. When we arrived at the medical center, the doctors began doing all sorts of tests. A cat scan, EKG, even a spinal tap. The doctors still were not sure what was wrong. They were preparing us to lose her. She was unconscious (in a coma) for almost 2 weeks, but then slowly started to awaken. They decided it was epilepsy, so then began the long process of testing which medications would benefit her. Once they found the right one it took about three days of adjusting it so that she could sit up on her own without falling over."
After my seizure occurred, my eyesight went bad. I then had to start wearing glasses. After a few years I had no problems with seizures and soon ended taking my medications. When I was 10 years old, and in the 4th grade I became sick, and stayed home from school for a few days. One of the days I remember being out at a gas station with my Dad. I began to feel dizzy and asked my Dad if we could go home. We got into the car and I remember looking out my window on the way home and seeing blurs of trees, when I look back now there were no trees on the ride home. When we pulled into the driveway my Dad got out of the car and went inside the house, expecting me to follow him. After a few minutes my Dad opened the door to the backseat asking why I haven't come inside. I was sitting there with my arms out forward trying to feel around for the seat in front of me. I told my Dad that I could not see it. My eyesight came back and my Dad helped me into the house. He sat me on the couch and walked down the hallway for a minute. I began yelling for him to come back. I told him how strange I felt, and then I lost eyesight in my right eye. I started to freak out and told him that I couldn't see out of my right eye. Then I blacked out.
The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital the next morning. You think that it would be strange not knowing what happened and waking up in the hospital. But honestly, I didn't even have the energy to care what was going on. I had just had another seizure. I remember the first time I tried to get out of bed to go take a bath and wash up, I tried to do it by myself and couldn't even hold myself up. I lost my appetite and nothing tasted good so I refused to eat. It took me a couple of weeks to start eating again. I remember constantly having nurses come in to do more tests on me every few hours. Even throughout the night I would be woken up for tests and new I.V.'s. I also remember all of the people that supported me. The one's that brought me stuff, or even just came to say hello and see how I was doing.
THANK YOU, to everyone that did so.
Once I was released from the hospital, the studies and tests continued. We traveled to different cities with better doctors and bigger facilities. They discovered some new things since my last episode, but still no answers as to what caused my episodes. I had some memory loss that came along with it. I remember going to my 4th grade class to visit everyone, and I couldn't even remember who everyone was. I still have all of the letters that everyone in that class wrote to me when I was in the hospital. My teacher was kind enough to have the kids write letters to me if they chose to during story time. She would drive to the hospital to hand deliver them and see how I was doing.
To this day they still don't know what caused either of my episodes.
But the good news it, I haven't had one since I was 10 years old, and I am now 21.
