November – Epilepsy Awareness Month

I just found out that November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. Like most things, I never thought about epilepsy much until it became part of my everyday life. I’ve talked about it often, but my dog Gus has epilepsy. It was a slow process of figuring out what it was–whether seizures were severe or frequent enough to warrant medication. We started meds last August; just before Halloween, we had another seizure (the first while on meds), but that was because he threw up / didn’t get the right dose of his Keppra. (Next time, I’ll have some better idea what to do in that situation–everyone’s different.)

I’m just at the beginning of this whole journey–but I’m thinking about the animals and people who are also dealing with epilepsy on a daily basis. There are so many brave people out there taking care of animals or children or other family members who have seizures. I’m already so grateful to our vet (who absolutely saved Gus’s life last summer during a terrible seizure) and to our online communities who’ve helped me take better care of Gus–and who make me feel like I’m far from alone.