When I think of the term "shaken, not stirred", I think of epilepsy. That isn't for any random reason. If you listen to my reason, you will consider my reason as perfectly valid. Think about it - if you have epilepsy, you are shaken. So much, in fact, you feel as if you have a headache. So, shaken, not stirred, is that a good idea? Right then, let me introduce myself:
My name is Becky Boulton, I'm 20 years old, and I have epilepsy.
It is actually a type of epilepsy that has a longer name, and a letter was recently delivered to me with the actual name of it on the letter. However, it is on the dining room table, and I have just sat down after lunch with some chocolate, so I am really comfortable.
I'm joking, I do know the name of the type of epilepsy I have. I have Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. It has changed over the seven years in which I have been diagnosed. It started as Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy (which is basically what they call it when they have no idea why I have epilepsy). Then it changed to Juvenile Absence Epilepsy, and then it was changed to Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy.
My absences started when I was ten years old and I started glazing over and not paying a lot of attention in class. I got into trouble with my teacher at first for it because she thought I was daydreaming and just glazing over in class. Personally I think it was because she couldn't spell and she needed someone to correct all of the words that she spelled wrong on the whiteboard, but that's just my opinion. My absences last anything from a few seconds to one that my sister said that lasted 20 minutes a while ago. These continued with my parents and my sister thinking I was just daydreaming.
My tonic-clonics are a bit of a pain to me. These are the bigger seizures that can last from just under a minute to a little over 5 minutes. These give me a pounding headache, make me sleep for the rest of the day,bite my tongue until it bleeds and (if I haven't emptied my bladder) wet myself. Luckily I didn't wet myself on the way to school, otherwise that would've been a little awkward.
I used to have myoclonics, which were where I would suddenly jerk and/or shout out. Usually I could disguise this as a cough, but it happened in a library once and there was the typical rule in the library where you weren't allowed to talk and I shouted out so LOUDLY everyone stared at me. I couldn't disguise it as a cough - that was impossible, and I couldn't run away because I needed to finish my work so I just had to try to avoid all eye contact with everyone. A girl next to me at a computer asked if I was ok and I just had to tell her about my epilepsy and she just said that as long as I was ok just make sure I let a member of staff know if I was feeling ill. I worked out that I had them due to stress. I had them when my coursework was on top of me and I had one when my Grandma died so there was a theme. Luckily I was put on medication where they stopped the next day so that was good.
I have started having partials now where I remember one thing but then I can't remember a period of time until the next time. A while ago, I had one where one moment I was sat on my bed, the next moment I was lying on the floor moments after an 8-minute seizure where I had face-planted a wall and had a seizure. My parents have had to put in a stair gate now. I am not joking.
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