Epilepsy: Trying to stay healthy while keeping seizures at bay?

[michigan4mom]

Anyone else out there want to share their tips on staying healthy and keeping seizures to a minimum while doing so?  Like there are so many types of seizures and no person is the same what works for one person may not work for the next but I love success stories or ideas. And I want to know I'm not alone out here in my partial seizures that sometimes generalize.💜

[SunsetRunner]

Hello @michigan4mom 

I too suffer from seizures. Mine are deep partial seizures. I started Fitbit in an effort to recover from a brain tumor removal in May of 2018 in my fourth ventricle. I was hoping once the tumor was removed that my adult onset of seizures would correct itself but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. You ask to share tips on staying healthy and keeping the seizures at a minimum while doing so. I believe the first step is to get your medication stabilized under the care of your neurologist (or specialist you may see) I’m on Gabapentin and as most medication it took a bit to find my “sweet spot” on dosage. Once my dosage was good it slowed them down. But, as I’m sure you know it doesn’t take it away permanently. The biggest thing for me was learning to accept epilepsy as a fact of life but that didn’t mean I had to let it dictate my life. I try to remain positive, active and wake up each morning thinking what activity am I gonna engage myself with. Maybe treadmill interval HIITs (hang on to the bars if it makes you feel more comfortable), maybe circuit training. I never wake up and say well I have epilepsy so I can’t do this or that. You can do whatever your mind tells you that you can. Convince yourself that you define who you are…not the epilepsy. Also learn forgiveness. There will be times when you sense one coming on…it’s frustrating I know…and it interferes with what your doing. It can’t be helped….you begin to feel sorry for yourself but learn to dig deep and know that this is such a fraction of your life. There’s so much more about you that makes you unique and special. Tap into those things. Find really great friends you can go to the gym with, take walks with…ones that can be there for you if necessary and also help laugh it off as we do so sometimes when we recover and feel awkward in public. Never wait around for the next seizure to come (it’s unpredictable) so get out, be healthy and feel good about your fitness goals.and give plenty of back patting to yourself when you accomplish them. You deserve it and your not alone!  💜 

[emili]

Hey there @michigan4mom  and welcome to the community. I don't have any tips to share or successes, but I did want to stop by to say you are not alone. Not in epilepsy, not in the desire to be healthy and happy- not in any of it. Even those of us who can't relate specifically to this, we can relate in other aspects of our lives. You ever need an ear, drop me a line 🙂 💜