B: What do you find difficult about your epilepsy?
G: People thinking I’m stupid! That’s not funny, Brooke! They tend to think because it’s a brain injury, you’re stupid, you’re thick.
B: What type of seizures do you have?
G: They are called tonic-clonic. It’s a funny name!
B: I couldn’t remember what it was called!
G: Tonic-clonic ones I have. I have night-time ones as well.
B: Ok!
B: What happens when you have a tonic-clonic seizure?
G: As you know, I fall down and shake around a lot.
B: Like, Holly says you have a jelly…
G: Jelly belly, yes!
B: Ok!
G: That is how the little one describes them. So not to frighten Holly, Holly called them a jelly belly.
B: Yeah! Because I remember one time, Holly was there when you had a seizure. She said that you had a jelly. You were shaking.
G: Yeah, I was shaking and had a jelly. It’s so it doesn’t make her frightened. She laughed. So now she calls me Jelly Belly Grandad.
B: OK…
G: Which is all right, because she’s not afraid, and she will grow up not afraid of it. Rather than other people growing up and ignoring it.
G: It can last anything from five… couple of minutes, to five minutes, to twenty minutes. And, before I don’t know how I feel, but afterwards, as you know, I feel very tired out. All I want to do is sleep. And eat! I like to eat a lot.
B: Do you worry about looking after me on your own just in case in you have a seizure?
G: Yes I do. In case you panic, or you don’t know what to do. I mean, you have seen them, haven’t you? And it’s not very nice. That’s why, when I take you to the pictures, I always have to ask the man, if I have a seizure, to look after you and just ignore me.
