Sharing Parker's Epilepsy Journey

My daughter, Parker, is an active 5-year-old little girl. I am a teacher, and Parker and her sister, Paityn, always go to work with me during pre-planning to help get my classroom together for the new school year. That day, we had to run to the town next to ours to grab some items for school. Parker was asleep in her car seat. As soon as I parked the car, she started having a seizure. It was a moment I will never forget. Luckily, I had a friend present to help during the whole experience. We called the ambulance and got Parker to the emergency room.

At the hospital, they ran some tests and stated that this was her "one free seizure," but a couple of days later, Parker had another seizure when she was with her daddy. We immediately took her back to the emergency room, and they transported us to the children's hospital. We were so blessed to receive the care we did while there. Parker had an EEG done the same night we got there and was diagnosed with epilepsy. She has been on medication for five months and has been doing great! 
 
Since Parker is so young, she is having a hard time understanding what is happening with her body. We have learned that her epilepsy is genetic, so we will now have to meet with a genetic counselor. Luckily, she has a great support system with her doctor, and they have explained perfectly what she is going through. 
 
Epilepsy is something that I was not familiar with at all before Parker's diagnosis. After more research, I learned that not many people seem to know about epilepsy or know the facts about epilepsy. Epilepsy does not define you as a person! I hope that through sharing Parker's epilepsy journey, people learn about epilepsy and how to support someone going through it.