My Story: pregnancy
Everyone’s epilepsy story is unique, and sharing your story helps others know they are not alone.
These are inspiring stories; of being diagnosed, over-coming challenges, fundraising and much, much more. Please share your story too.
I was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) when I was about 20 years old. Since then, I have been prescribed several anti-epilepsy drugs to help control my seizures. The first drug I...  | Planning When I was diagnosed in 2008 my symptoms were quite severe. I wasn't able to work and day-to-day tasks were a struggle. At this point I thought I might never be...  | Planning I did not have any pre-conception counselling before I fell pregnant with my first child. Louie was a surprise! As soon as I found out that I was pregnant I...  |
I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy when I was seven years old. My parents never made an issue out of it and I was always allowed to do things that I was safe to do. Until the age of 21, I...  | Looking back, despite our research, we were quite naive when planning to have our first child. No one was overly concerned that I was taking sodium valproate. At 20 weeks, I had the normal scan -...  | In 2010 I had brain surgery. This was actually ‘foramen magnum decompression surgery’ for a chiari 1 malformation (a bit of a mouthful). A short while after the surgery I was diagnosed with...  |
Planning When I realised things were getting serious between me and my now husband, I went for preconception counselling. I had been on Epilim (sodium valproate) pretty...  | Planning When we went for preconception counselling (in 2004), I was still at the stage of having about 40-50 petit mal seizures a month. I was on a low dose of lamotrigine...  | The moment I knew I was pregnant Surely this can’t be right!! What were the instructions again? Does that blue line really mean…? I was expecting it to take at least...  |
Planning I was aware that as and when I wanted to have a baby, I should discuss my plans with my GP and (if necessary) a neurologist. I had assumed at least a six month...  | Planning About a year before I became pregnant, I read something about the contraceptive pill interacting with my anti-epileptic drug (AED), lamotrigine. After yet another...  | Tell us more about the day you had a seizure in public while pregnant and what a difference someone helping made to you. 6th March 2015 remains the worst...  |
I was diagnosed in 1986 with what was then called petit mal seizures. I was put on valproate. At 19 I had 3 tonic clonic seizures and had my medication changed to the then new drug Lamotrigine. A...  Verwood | My greatest achievement is a happy family. I was diagnosed with epilepsy after having a foramen magnum decompression surgery for a chiari 1 malformation in March 2010. Tonic Clonic and Absent... It's twins |