November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.  I hope this post will provide information and facts about epilepsy, while also showcasing women blogging about life with seizures.

Here are some epilepsy facts from CURE Epilepsy...

• Epilepsy affects over 3 million Americans of all ages – more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease combined. Almost 500 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed every day in the United States. Epilepsy affects 50,000,000 people worldwide.
• In two-thirds of patients diagnosed with epilepsy, the cause is unknown.
• Epilepsy can develop at any age and can be a result of genetics, stroke, head injury, and many other factors.
• In over thirty percent of patients, seizures cannot be controlled with treatment. Uncontrolled seizures may lead to brain damage and death. Many more have only partial control of their seizures.
• The severe epilepsy syndromes of childhood can cause developmental delay and brain damage, leading to a lifetime of dependency and continually accruing costs—both medical and societal.
• It is estimated that up to 50,000 deaths occur annually in the U.S. from status epilepticus (prolonged seizures), Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), and other seizure-related causes such as drowning and other accidents.
• The mortality rate among people with epilepsy is two to three times higher than the general population and the risk of sudden death is twenty-four times greater.
• Recurring seizures are also a burden for those living with brain tumors and other disorders such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, tuberous sclerosis, and a variety of genetic syndromes.

I found this video on a blog called My 3 Peanuts - It is a very informative video that explains exactly what happens during a seizure.

Understanding Epilepsy...

From The Epilepsy Foundation - Women and Epilepsy...

More than one million women and girls in the United States are living with seizure disorders. They face many unique challenges, from changes during the monthly cycle which may trigger seizures to concerns regarding pregnancy. Social factors leave them vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. Yet their plight and the manner in which they are affected has been largely ignored. As an important part of the Epilepsy Foundation's role in advocating for all people with epilepsy, we are committed to addressing the unique health concerns of women with epilepsy with our Special Initiative.

• Depression is a major risk for about one in three women with epilepsy.
• Women with epilepsy face epilepsy-related reproductive difficulties throughout their lives, including increased rates of sexual dysfunction, infertility and seizures related to the menstrual cycle.
• Despite risks, successful pregnancy is possible, but often inappropriately discouraged by health care providers.
• Long-term use of some antiepileptic drugs negatively affects bone health in women.

Women diagnosed with epilepsy face unique health issues that include reproductive problems, osteoporosis, excessive weight gain, and sexual dysfunction.

From Reagan Leigh - NEAM...

I thought I'd take a few moments to talk about how Epilepsy has affected our life. Well, it's pretty obvious after reading only a few posts, epilepsy affects every minute of every day for us. Since Reagan was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms at only 5 months old, our lives have completely changed. We essentially knew nothing about seizures or epilepsy and had NO clue the damage it could do to a newly developing brain. It's been challenging and frustrating and there's no doubt we HATE seizures but strangely enough there are ways in which Reagan's diagnosis has affected us in a positive way.

From Little Ladybug - Excuse me while I rant...

Just over a year ago we lost our only child, Karissa Renae, to Epilepsy. She was three and a half years old. The reason for this blog is three-fold. First, it is in memory of my sweet angel, Karissa, who is healed and complete and is in the presence of Jesus. Second, it is a place for me to express the many feelings and emotions that come with grieving the tragic loss of a child. Lastly, I hope to bring awareness to Epilepsy, a condition that effects over 3 million Americans and causes up to 50,000 deaths each year.

From Winda's Blog - Making it Through...

I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was five years old, caused by scar tissue on the left side of my brain after a difficult birth. It started with complex-partial seizures, where my right eye would twitch and I was incoherent. But after I was put on medication, the seizures stopped and I felt normal again.

Unfortunately, as my age increased, so did my seizures. Once I got to high school, my stress levels rose and I started getting less sleep—a horrible combination for anybody, but especially for someone with epilepsy. By the end of my freshman year, I began experiencing breakthrough seizures. Basically, baby seizures where the right side of my body would become numb for a couple of minutes. When those occurred, no one would notice, but it terrified me because that was the feeling I’d have before a tonic-clonic or convulsive seizure.

In the average day I would have about two to three breakthrough seizures.

From Take Five - November - Epilepsy Awareness...

My daughter has epilepsy. Although we're fortunate she doesn't have 100 a day like so many children. But when she does have an episode, it's a grand mal seizure. The kind that brings me to my knees and takes my breath away. As a parent with a child with epilepsy, it's the most helpless feeling when there isn't anything we can do to make it better. It's maddening that we can't comfort our children while they scream during a seizure.

From BlogHer Kelly Curran - November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month...

For young infants and children with epilepsy, the parents are their only warriors. Sometimes the parents need to face their own fears in order to help their child. If you lose the parent, you lose the child. Epilepsy plays hard, and often learning about it is a trial by fire. While the war is hard, there is no time for self pity as every parent needs to keep up the good fight. Every moment lost to seizures, is a moment lost in development. There is no time for fear.

When most people think of epilepsy or seizures, they think of "tonic/clonic seizures" aka "generalized seizures" aka "grand mal seizures." These are the scary ones. Where the child is convulsing, shaking and often screaming or making strange sounds uncontrollably. Witnessing this type of seizure is truly frightening. Unfortunately, most of the general public feel that this is the only type of seizure. I myself thought that long ago when our good friend first suggested my Jenelle was having seizures. I thought to myself, "It's so obvious, I would know when I see it, right?" Not necessarily.

It usually takes a long time for most individuals and even some doctors to learn to recognize the other seizure types. The most difficult to control seizures for my Jenelle, who literally has each and every type of seizure there is, are the absence seizures, often called staring seizures.

From BlogHer Mia - A Yellow Missile Victory...

I haven’t written much about Alex as of yet, but he has moderate Cerebral Palsy. Most of the affects are global: developmental, speech and cognitive delays, sensory integration dysfunction, possibly ADHD, epilepsy, and mild to moderate physical impairments of spasticity of his muscles on his right side (arm and leg). He has a full AFO on his right leg and a shorter ankle brace (or schmo) on his left. He can walk and run, slowly climb some things, certainly walk up steps of the bus and sit in a seat….so, needless to say, we were shocked that she would say no, and that she would be so adamant about it. Especially, she said, because of his epilepsy and what if something happened on the bus….

Okay. We thought she had a good point, however, we are his parents and we feel comfortable with him riding a regular school bus with regular kids (and any others that have special needs that may eventually win their right to ride the regular bus)

From Our Family of 4...

My mom was watching Kade for the morning and she was getting him ready for a nap. He was just about asleep when he got a strange look on his face and his hands started to twitch. My mom couldn't make his hands stop twitching and she could get him to react to stimulus. She called me, thinking he might have had a seizure. I quickly called Kade's Dr, and he wanted to see him right away. We saw the Dr. and he told us to goto Children's hospital right away because he thought Kade did infact have a seizure.

Over the course of the next 3 weeks we were students of the human brain, genetics, and became fluent with medical terminology. None of which I wanted to do, but we were thrown into this without choice. Kade had more tests done on him in a 3 week period than most people have done in a LIFETIME. At the age of 5 months he was having a MRI, CT, and multiple EEG's done. All the while still having seizures, uncontrollable seizures, that might last 2 minutes, and the longest lasting 15 minutes.

From Seven Swans A Swimming - Epilepsy Awareness Month...

There are so many myths about epilepsy and a lot of confusion about what to do, what it is, and how to deal with it. In partnering with the Epilepsy Foundation I am going to be sharing facts here all month long. On top of that Brendan and I are going to be raising money for Epilepsy Research and for families experiencing the financial burden of Epilepsy. Now many of you may be thinking, "it's just a seizure, no big deal right?" Wrong! You couldn't be more wrong. My first fact is very sobering! The same number of people die each year from epilepsy as do people from breast cancer and people from car accidents! Pretty crazy when you think about it. On top of that more than 60% of those who die from epilepsy are children under the age of 15! So, now do you see why we need to get the word out?

Does Music Impact Epilepsy For Bad or Good?

Music has also been found to have a profoundly positive effect on individuals with epilepsy as well. One research study even found that when epileptic patients are treated with music therapy as well as conventional epileptic medicines as many as eighty percent of their patients had the frequency of their epileptic seizures reduced by seventy five percent! Likewise, eighty percent of epileptic patients experienced at least some reduction in the intensity of their epileptic seizures.

The reason for this, it has been suggested, may be found in the fact that the brain does not have any single center for processing music. Instead, the areas of the brain that process music are scattered widely across the brain.

Why Funding Epilepsy Research Is So Important...

Last night, Frances Jensen, MD, senior associate in Neurology, was featured in a piece on 60 Minutes about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of funding research into its cure. Watch the piece here, then keep reading below as Jensen describes how epilepsy is often overlooked as a public health problem and how researchers like her are trying to stop it in its tracks.

Also See:

• From The Lazy Chemist - Women and Epilepsy
• How Epilepsy Effects Women
• From Alison Rose Levy - Hold The MSG: Food Triggers for Epilepsy
• From The Mayo Clinic - Epilepsy: Coping and Support

Do you know someone who struggles with this disorder?  Do you have a story about how epilepsy has touched your life?  If so, please share with us in comments.  And if you're posting about Epilepsy Awareness Month, I hope you will leave links in comments.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
at Catherine-Morgan.com and Women4Hope