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A mom-to-be here, worried about Grand Mal sz.
Sat, 12/30/2006 - 19:55Topic: Women With Epilepsy
Hi all, I'm also a new member. Great board.
A brief snapshot of me: We're adopting a baby girl in the next couple of months. The wait has been over 2 years, and I cannot wait to be a Mom. After briefly considering bio children, we decided to adopt. With my grand mal sz's and Depakote/Lamictal cocktail, we naturally had major concerns about me and the baby. So, here I am on this journey, and I haven't looked back for one second.
Now I have new concerns for our soon to be home baby. All new moms have challenges, but for us with epilepsy, I'm realizing we're loaded up with ten times those challenges. It's been almost 3yrs since my last sz, so I'm hoping all will be OK. But stress and lack of sleep are my triggers, and those will come hand-in-hand with motherhood.
I'm reaching out to the women trying to manage motherhood and epilepsy. What were your fears? How did you overcome them? If you weren't able to manage your sz, how did you find a way to keep your children safe?
It's hard meandering through this path of upcoming motherhood and trying to figure a safe way to deal with epilepsy. Thanks for listening, would love to hear your thoughts.
Happy 07,
Lisa
Comments
Re: Re: A mom-to-be here, worried about Grand Mal sz.
Submitted by ChristinaMomof2 on Tue, 2007-04-03 - 20:31
Hi,
I just had a baby girl, she is 3 weeks old. I have only ever had seizures while sleeping so I am especially careful not to fall asleep holding my baby girl or with her in bed with me. I am terrified I am going to start having more seizures now that I am not sleeping much at all and it has caused me more stress just worrying about that. But I have been sleeping during the day when I can and my husband helps out on the weekends, he usually gives me a break and lets me get a full nights sleep.
I am still worried that the seizures will get worse, but I am just trying to stay positive.
Thanks, Christina
Re: A mom-to-be here, worried about Grand Mal sz.
Submitted by Chrissyml on Fri, 2007-03-30 - 02:31
Hi Lisa. I have two kids, now 18 and 16 years. I haven't had a grand mal seizure in more than 2 years, but my seizures were quite bad when the kids were young. A few things I recommend are a slow cooker, a rice cooker, and a toaster oven. I found after bad seizures my thinking would be kind of groggy and I sometimes would put something on a burner or in the oven and forget about it. I found that sometimes I would sit down for a minute and fall DEAD asleep; I couldn't stay awake. In addition to forgetting things on the burner or in the oven after a bad seizure, there is also the possibilty that we will remember the food but forget to shut off the burner or oven. There is a possibility of fire or our children burning themselves. I have a big book of slow cooker recipes by Better Homes and Gardens. If I don't feel well, I look for something to make in the slow cooker. I throw the ingredients in in the morning and leave it on low. I can forget about what I'm making and it won't burn. I've only screwed up occasionally and forgotten to plug it in. :-) I use my rice cooker for both rice and oatmeal. I throw oatmeal in first thing in morning in the morning, take my shower, and breakfast is ready by the time I get out. No more burned rice or oatmeal pots. A toaster oven is handy because most have short timers. I could put chicken, pork chops, a small cake, casseroles,etc. in and not worry about forgetting them. The kids were also able to cook left-overs and small pizzas with it. I also got in the habit of cooking frozen vegetables in the microwave. Again, no burned pots. I had small change mats and changed the babies on the floor.