SO our son is three and on daily medication to control seizures, but he is alive and otherwise healthy. We were adjusting to the new normal life that we were going to have. WE did not know if or when he would outgrow this disorder but we could make it through.
The response we got in the beginning from people we told was rather surprising. When people found out that he had seizures we stopped getting calls for play dates, sleepovers and outings. I do not know if people were scared of him having a seizure or what they may have been thinking. I mean you cannot catch epilepsy by being friends or family with someone who has it, and let’s face it if they ever had him around them he most likely had seizures when he was with them and they just did not know it. If they only had him for a few hours they would probably not even have to do anything different. The medication was given in the morning and at bedtime and it was not a shot. He was taking capsules that we pull apart and sprinkle on top of apple sauce so giving his the medication was nothing to be concerned with.
Now for the record it is not just friends that sort of backed away some members of our extended family seemed to as well. They never really spent a whole lot of time with the kids since we added them to our family, but it is less now. Look, I get it the idea of a child on the floor having a seizure is scary, there is no argument about that but so far that had not happened. Even if he did have a seizure in front of them it would not be the end of the world. I mean there are about 300,000 kids in America that have epilepsy and the world still spins every day.
We were unaware of all the stigmas that come with a chronic diagnosis like this. I know we are nowhere near where we were in the past, at least in America we do not think seizures are caused by demons. We may not be able to give a definite reason that a person develops this but we are sure it is not due to demonic possession. It felt like that some people think we should have returned him to foster care because he had this, but those were some of the same people who did not understand why we were adopting in the first place. If you have a child biologically, like we could have, they do not come with a guarantee. A biological child has just as much a chance of having this or any other disorder or disease. No one would ever give up their biological child so why would we? WE love him even if he is not legally ours in our hearts, he is our son.