Anyone diagnosed with a disorder like epilepsy has various fears they have to deal with every day. Some of these fears are bigger than others and they can vary from person to person, but one fear pretty much all people with epilepsy have in common. Having a seizure in public.
For some people, this can be dangerous and result in them falling and hitting their heads on something. Other people can risk stopping dead in their tracks and getting run into or upsetting people around them over misunderstandings about the disorder.
Most university students’ memorable nights have to do with partying or going out with their friends, but mine has to do with the one time that I had a seizure in public resulting in me wandering around the city for hours on end.
It was a Monday evening, going into a three-hour class with a half-charged phone. I was expecting to just go to class, chill near the window for a few hours while my teacher talked about morals and ethics, then go back to my room and eat some mac and cheese. That expectation was trashed after about ten minutes when I woke up on a gurney getting asked the same three questions you get asked every time.
1. What’s your name? Madison
2. What’s the date? I never know that, but I think it’s a Monday
3. Who’s the president? I’m pretty sure it’s Trump, but I’m never too sure anymore.
Even if I can answer the questions and can function and walk perfectly fine, they still have to take me to the hospital and charge me a few hundred dollars to tell me something I already know.
With a phone on 40% and God only knows what’s ahead of me, they drive me 15 minutes to the hospital. I tried to pay attention to what the EMTs were talking about, but my mind started racing faster than it ever has before so I can try and ground myself and figure out what I was going to do. It’s very hard to ground yourself in a moving vehicle so I tried to answer my own questions.
· Where am I going? To the hospital emergency room
· How long should I be there? Could be anywhere from half an hour to four hours
· How will I catch up on what I miss? I can email him when I get home. Home
· How am I going to get home? No idea
A cot in the hallway and texting my mom who’s three hours away from me for a bit to try and keep me calm made time fly by. Time and my phone battery.
I got out of the hospital three hours later with a phone on 6% and no idea where I was going. I don’t pray very often, but at that moment I was praying harder than I ever have before.
Within five minutes my phone was dead and I was a lost soul. Occasionally, there would be a couple of people walking past but they didn’t know which way to go any more than I did. The last thing I checked on my phone was Google Maps on how to get back to school, but I guess I got my lefts and rights mixed up at some point and ended up somewhere new that I never wanted to be. Suddenly the street names looked less and less familiar and I was out of it. When I hit the freeway, I figured I went the wrong way.
Eventually, I found some police officers responding to a robbery at a Mcdonalds. I went back to relying on what I was taught when I was little and went to ask them for help. They pointed me in the exact direction that I came from when I asked which way the school was.
I think the look of disappointment and frustration made them take pity on me and give me a ride. Over the next hour, I had talked to drug addicts, homeless people and various other criminals who walked into the police station while I waited for them to give me a ride back to campus.
Eventually, a couple of cops gave me a ride back to campus once they figured out that I wasn’t related to the robbery case. The debate of who has the worst stigma, police officers or journalists, is one I will never forget.
When I finally got back to my room, I had around 30 calls and texts from my mom. I’m genuinely surprised that she didn’t drive up to my campus when she heard that I was in the hospital.
I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that night, or a portable charger, ever again.
Xx
5 months, 29 days
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