My first day of senior year - gone wrong.

As you all know, I'm on three medications. Epilepsy meds are very strong and that means there are very strong side effects as well. For me, my most common daily side effects are double vision, and the inability to walk. This lasts about 3 to 5 hours after taking my medication. But sometimes these side effects return throughout the day with a vengeance.

Today was my very first day of school, and I'm proud to say it was my senior year. However, my day was probably the opposite of what I had hoped it to be. My normal medication schedule is to take one dose at 6:00am and one dose at about 9:00pm. Obviously, due to the side effects and the time that school starts, this had to
be moderated. We decided I would wake up at 3:00am (as if I was even asleep at
this time...) and take my first dose, then after school at 5:00pm I would take my
second dose. It seemed like a fool proof plan. If you're good at math, this means you
know that by taking my medication at 3:00am leaves exactly 4 hours to pass those
horrible side effects. But unfortunately, for some reason, that was not the case. The side effects lasted until 11:00am and would come and go. Thankfully I could walk, but I walked close to the wall. Dizzy spells were on and off, and at one point I actually fell right on my butt and almost hit my head on the hard brick wall. Thankfully no one saw me because I was already late to class... Which is not good. I had double vision the entire time which made EVERYTHING hard. On your first day of school, basically you are just filling out papers in every class with your name, grade, birthday, phone number, etc... And it is very hard to do when you can't even see the paper.

So basically, my first day of my last year in high school was everything I didn't want it to be. It looks like it will be another year of homebound schooling at home. This means I don't get to be with all my friends, I don't get to be in the year book and I don't even get to go to prom. The only chance I had to go to prom was last year... And my boyfriend of two years (who I left a month ago) went with another girl and never told me. So I didn't get to go. Yipee!

just a little update an how I've been feeling. Basically my side effects are worse and I'm dealing with them everyday. I even fell in the middle of church two weeks ago. I make it a point to go each Sunday whether I'm sick or not and that really backfires on me a lot. This blog post is off of my cell phone so I'll proof read it later, excuse any typos. God bless you all and remember to pray for all the little children, infants and older who have Epilepsy and suffer everyday. I encourage all of you to choose one of the great Epilepsy foundations and donate whatever you can for Epilepsy research or to help take care of the children and even adults in need. I believe there is even a site were you can donate to help dogs who have seizure disorders. Do what you can and make a difference in someone's life.

- Mandy Krzywonski