The type of seizures that I have are mostly partial seizures. They can be complex partial seizures sometimes as well. And very rarely tonic-clonic seizures. And I go into status epilepticus sometimes also. When I am suffering from a partial seizure, that can just last for a few seconds and I can see, usually, what’s going on, but maybe vision is altered and I can’t really understand what people are saying if they’re talking to me directly. Or, if say, the television’s on, the television might start saying something strange to me, or talk to me directly rather than what is on the television – altered perception, really. For a complex partial seizure, that can last a lot longer and although I’m partially aware, maybe not totally aware of what is happening. Sometimes I’m driven to do things without any explanation. For example I can be in a car, and want to get out of the car and open the door, which can be quite dangerous. And get out of houses and things like that. So, those are the sort of things that I have when I have complex partial seizures. And sometimes when you have these partial and complex partial seizures, you can have clusters of them, which can last for up to two hours, so they are quite draining. When I have a tonic-clonic seizure, and I haven’t had one for a long time, they are what people expect a seizure to be really – jerking, and biting lips, and that sort of thing. I haven’t witnessed one myself so I can’t give you a good explanation! With status epilepticus, that’s when you don’t stop fitting yourself. Usually, people come out of a seizure naturally, but if you have status epilepticus, you keep on seizing and seizing and you need medical intervention to stop that seizure. It can be life threatening that, status epilepticus. I think I’ve had it three times – my memory’s also affected by my epilepsy, so that can be difficult…
