Epilepsy

I'm going to get a little personal in my blog, I think I'm going to be doing this a lot more in 2012, there are so many times I want to share an amazing story Ive heard about a senior I have photographed or just share something that has touched my heart..so here goes :)

My son Austin, he is 17 and is a Junior at Cy Fair high school, many of you know and have followed his journey on his page about his battle (it is a battle) with Epilepsy.  This spring Austin went through 2 very painful and very dangerous operations to remove part of his brain in the hopes that it would cure his seizures.  He started out 2011, on January 2nd in the hospital with phase 1 of 3 and finished out his hospital stay on March 15 with phase 3 and 2 brain surgeries under his belt.  We left tired but very hopeful his seizures were cured and we could move through this life without the worry of anymore seizures....after recently celebrating his 9 month anniversary of being seizure free, we were slipping into a new normal, a life without seizures, while we were still on a buffet of seizures drugs and were dealing with the horrible side effect daily, it was becoming routine and bearable without having to worry about seizures anymore...until December 27th; Austin had 2 seizures, out of the blue, to say we were devastated is putting it mildly, we were shocked, stunned and broken hearted, Austin kept himself locked away until the next afternoon coming to terms with what had happened, we all were just a little in shock, well I think it was more anger than shock now looking back....

We contacted his doctor right away and ran a few tests and confirmed that his seizures have returned, so we are plotting a new coarse on our quest to cure his seizures, we still feel that he can be cured, whether it be by surgery, God or both...we are plotting.

After the first couple of days after the initial shock had worn off I think I went to that place called anger, aren't there like some stages or something your supposed to go through when something bad happens, I know this isn't the same as loosing someone etc but I think there might be some kind of steps your supposed to go through, maybe 7 or something silly like that....At first I was terrified, the seizure he had was bad and scary, he was chocking for a better part of the seizure and it scared me, more so than the others, then I went into acceptance ( I think I skipped like 5 steps there) then just a few days ago, I think I went back a few steps and went into anger, that's where I'm at now and I think its where I will plan to stay for a little bit, I may plan to stay at this step till we find a cure for stupid fepilepsy (a term a few of my epi moms and I use but insert a F word in there, trying to keep it PG here).

For awhile now, well since 2007, Ive been working with Memorial Hermann and recently an organization Talk about it.org, to help fund research and spread seizure awareness.   We've had 3 toys drives and starting in November Ive been selling these little bracelets, that say Epilepsy Talk about it on them, they are cute, they are purple and there only $5 bucks.  Ive given a few away and sold "some" Ive had some amazing friends and family who have sold a bunch but I want to sell them all..guess how many I have left, over 400 and I want them sold and I want people wearing them, wearing them to help spread the word, wearing them to let Austin know we are behind him and to let Epilepsy know to take a hike!!  I had very high hopes when I bought all those bracelets, that I could sell them all...so I'm on a mission, to sell all these bracelets ALL of them and if I cant sell them all I'll give them away, I wanna see them on people and know we are working every day to spread the word about fepilepsy and how until we find a cure, 3 million children are suffering each and every day with seizures, many of which will die as a result of their seizures...

So I ask you this, do you have a bracelet, do you want one, do you want 20, do you want to help me find a cure for epilepsy and do you want to help Austin know he can do this, he can beat this and be seizure free?  All the money raised will go to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Memorial Hermann towards Epilepsy research.

Also if you have a Blog or a facebook page, share this, you can copy and paste the story if you dont want to share the actual blog, share this with your friends, your family, classmates at school and the people you work with :)

If you wanna help you can email/text/call me or leave a comment in the comment section and I will get in touch with you.

kimmilburnphoto@aol.com
832-453-5670
or leave a comment below