Epilepsy: Jordan’s Story
Epilepsy: a neurological condition that is characterized by recurrent seizures.
- About 2 million people in America have epilepsy.
- Seizures are caused by unusual electrical activity in the brain that is characterized by muscles tightening and relaxing quickly or stop moving completely.
- During a seizure, the person may fall down, shake, stiffen, throw up, drool, urinate or lose control of their bowels. These severe seizures are known as grand mal seizures.
- Sometimes the seizures are less severe, and may not even be noticed by an onlooker. These seizures may just look like the person is staring off into space or having jerky movements in one part of their body, like their leg.
- When the seizure is over, the person usually feels sleepy and will not remember what happened.
- A person can have epilepsy if they have a seizure once an hour or once a year, this just means the epilepsy is more or less severe.
- Seizures can begin at any age, but often they start before 15 or after 65.
- Doctors often cannot explain why a person has epilepsy, but they do know that it is not genetic. If your Mom or Dad has epilepsy, there is only a slightly higher chance that you may have epilepsy.
- There is no cure for epilepsy, but seizure can be controlled by taking medicines and in some cases, a special diet and surgery may help.
- It is even possible for people to “grow out” of epilepsy, or stop having seizures once they reach a certain age.
Jordan’s Story
Jordan is thirteen years old. Jordan’s first seizure happened when Jordan was three years old. Jordan suffers from severe epilepsy and has had a grand mal seizure on average once a month since the age of three. Jordan also has daily seizures where Jordan fades out of attention. Jordan loves horseback riding and swimming. Jordan is very shy but has two best friends
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