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I am the happiest person in the world now! Since
the last one & half years I haven't had an epileptic attack!
This was possible because of the Neuro-surgery I went through in
July2003. I used to have 2 to 10 attacks a month. This surgery was
done in Trivandrum, at 'Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical
Sciences'. Now my family, my friends and I are living a very happy
life. The anxiety and suffering is finally over.
1st July 1980.
I was 7 years old. That day I had my first Epileptic attack. I was
unconscious for the whole day, I was suffering from left Temporal
Lobe Epilepsy and since that day my attacks started increasing.
At first I used to have 2-3 attacks a month, but day-by-day the
attacks increased, and up to last year number of attacks per month
settled on 5 to 10. There were so many restrictions on me. Swimming,
driving, running was not possible for me. Above all it hampered
my quality of life a great deal and every moment was an anxious
moment.
Both my parents have very positive thinking nature.
They never treated me differently or as a child with some illness.
They brought up my sister and me in the same manner, but due to
this illness I could not participate in any of the sports and outdoor
activities. So my parents encouraged me to cultivate hobbies, which
I could do at home. They started me on Indian classical music's
class, drawing and many other hobbies. For me, classical music turned
out to be my meditation, which is still continuing. At first, drawing
was a hobby, but eventually it became my profession. I became Commercial
Artist.
My mother, Dr. Anita Awachat, was my mentor from
my childhood. She was a perfectionist. She taught me how to take
medicines on time, how to keep notes about the attacks etc. Her
opinion was, tablets are our friends, we have to accept them happily,
and we have to say while taking medicines that I will be all right
because of these medicines! She taught me how to accept my illness
and how to live positively with epilepsy. Epilepsy is not only a
physical disease; it also depends on your mental strength as well.
It is said to be a psychosomatic as well. Meditation helped me counter
the disease from time to time. When I met Parag, my husband, we
started doing Vipassana, a scientific technique of meditation.
My mother was affected by cancer in 1989. But
she was not at all nervous or depressed. She was working hard till
her last day before she got admitted even if she was a cancer patient.
That was when I realized, my disease is nothing compared to Cancer.
I was told; Epilepsy is not an emergency disease like cancer; so
why should I cry? I just have to accept it.
Parag, my husband also thinks very positively,
just as my parents. After our marriage he started to know &
learn about epilepsy. He started to read, surf the net on this subject.
He used to give information about this subject to me. My attacks
were increasing day by day. Then one day my Neurologist; Dr. Pradeep
Diwate told us about the possible Epilepsy surgery.
We were in Belgium on account of my husband's
job. During that 1 ½ year stay, my attacks became very erratic
and finally the most dreaded thing happened. I burnt my hand to
third degree. I got an attack while I was cooking. That is when
we decided to finally take a chance at Epilepsy surgery. We came
to India, took an appointment at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute.
After Video EEG, initial check-ups and diagnosis of one-week stay
at Sree Chitra, Dr Radhakrishnan told us that I was a good feasible
candidate for surgery. This gave us a ray of hope. It was a very
important and critical decision and we had nothing to lose.
I was operated on 2nd July. (My surgery was 495th epileptic surgery
at Sree Chitra!) Operation lasted for about 8 hours. After a long
wait, Doctors told Parag that operation was successful, but the
anxiety didn't go right away, because my family and i lived with
epilepsy for 23 years. All the doctors and nurses at Sree Chitra
are very dedicated, and caring team. After operation I kept myself
occupied with origami, and reading to ignore the pain. My recovery
was very fast, and I was discharged after 7 days. The first review
at Sree Chitra after 3 months showed no signs of epileptic activity
in my brain. This was sheer joy to us, this was simply too hard
to believe & to good to be true. I am very grateful to the team
at Sree Chitra, which includes all Doctors, Nurses and the Staff.
Now I want to share my joy. I always wanted to
reach out to people (this I possibly inherited from my parents),
and hence decided that whatever the disease & a successful surgery
has taught me and the manner in which I seem to have conquered it,
should be passed on to as many epileptic patients as possible.
This has given rise to an idea of forming a support
group for epileptic patients and their families. I started to meet
epileptic patients and their families and many Neurologists in Pune.
I told them about my operation and shared the idea of support group
with them etc.
I learnt about a very active epilepsy support group, "Samman"
- in Mumbai. I started to attend the support group in Mumbai. When
I saw confidence in epileptic patients, I felt very glad! Yet there
is a need to bring about more awareness in the society. An epileptic
can lead a normal life, live happily while fighting with the disease.
Neurologists in Pune are very co-operative. Some
of them have started to send their patients to me to counsel &
convince them for the Epilepsy surgery. When people look at me as
an example of successful operation, they happily get ready for the
operation! My support group is supposedly starting next month. Who
so ever is interested, or know any epileptic patient, please do
call me on my cell no: 9822008035 or pass on this message to them.
I will be more than happy to be of help |
