Hi All
It's great to find a forum that also allows partners of people with epilepsy to join! The only Australian forums that I can find relating to epilepsy are only for those that have epilepsy to partake in discussion.
My gorgeous guy is 36 and has been epileptic since he was kicked in the head with steelcaps by his stepfather at age 14. He has tonic clonic seizures mostly once a week at present. We have been together for over a year and the longest stretch without a seizure has been eight weeks. They seem to all happen in his sleep - generally he will have one early in the morning followed by another 2 at approx 3 hr intervals. This will wipe him out for at least the rest of the day. He had a cavernoma removed 3 years ago and was seizure free for a short while until he was bashed by 5 guys one night 18 months ago and now the seizures are back with a vengence. He is on Topamax & Keppra. The keppra dosage is 3000mg a day.
The biggest challenge is trying to find employment for him. He has been unemployed for 6 years. No employer will risk him using their machinery even though his seizures are nocturnal. As a result, boredom and frustration dominate his life. I try to keep him busy and take him out as much as possible on weekends, but I know that not having a job really gets him down.
The government will not give him a sickness benefit as they say he is still capable of working a 15 hr week. He currently has a recent bleed on the brain and is having another EEG this week and going back to the neuro. If that's not sick, I don't know what is! One visit to the neuro costs $220 and he only gets $245 on the unemployment benefit. So its a financial struggle too, but hey, love conquers all obstacles.
It's great to find a forum that also allows partners of people with epilepsy to join! The only Australian forums that I can find relating to epilepsy are only for those that have epilepsy to partake in discussion.
My gorgeous guy is 36 and has been epileptic since he was kicked in the head with steelcaps by his stepfather at age 14. He has tonic clonic seizures mostly once a week at present. We have been together for over a year and the longest stretch without a seizure has been eight weeks. They seem to all happen in his sleep - generally he will have one early in the morning followed by another 2 at approx 3 hr intervals. This will wipe him out for at least the rest of the day. He had a cavernoma removed 3 years ago and was seizure free for a short while until he was bashed by 5 guys one night 18 months ago and now the seizures are back with a vengence. He is on Topamax & Keppra. The keppra dosage is 3000mg a day.
The biggest challenge is trying to find employment for him. He has been unemployed for 6 years. No employer will risk him using their machinery even though his seizures are nocturnal. As a result, boredom and frustration dominate his life. I try to keep him busy and take him out as much as possible on weekends, but I know that not having a job really gets him down.
The government will not give him a sickness benefit as they say he is still capable of working a 15 hr week. He currently has a recent bleed on the brain and is having another EEG this week and going back to the neuro. If that's not sick, I don't know what is! One visit to the neuro costs $220 and he only gets $245 on the unemployment benefit. So its a financial struggle too, but hey, love conquers all obstacles.
We only know he has a bleed as he had to have an MRI as part of his bail conditions, so found this out a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully thats whats causing his seizures at the mo and we can get it fixed. Just a pain that it costs so much to get to the end of this tunnel.