Epilepsy on Our Terms: Stories by Children with Seizures and Their Parents

This enlightening book presents the firsthand personal accounts of children with seizure disorders and their parents. In their own words, these children and parents vividly describe the experiences of handling the crisis of the initial seizure, adjusting to the diagnosis of epilepsy, coping with seizures, managing medications and side effects, and dealing with health care providers, teachers, schoolmates, siblings, and friends. Reveals the terror, uncertainty, and frustration felt by children and parents after an initial seizure or a diagnosis of epilepsy. Documents the ongoing trials, tribulations and triumphs of coping with seizures, medication schedules and side effects, health care providers and hospitals, schoolmates, siblings, relatives and friends. These accounts provide realistic insights into the myriad issues encountered in living with childhood epilepsy. The book also includes a straightforward medical discussion of childhood seizures, written in layperson’s terms by Dr. Pellock; a glossary of medical terms; and a guide for schoolteachers and parents written by William Murphy, the Executive Director of the Epilepsy Association of Massachusetts. Appendices provide a directory of Epilepsy Foundation of America affiliates; a list of recommended books, publications, and videotapes; and information about the Epilepsy Foundation of America’s Winning Kids program.