Dealing with epilepsy

My “favorite” seizure: epilepsy at work

My first job, back in 2008, was in consultancy. To be more precise, I wrote project proposals that helped private/public sector entities to get European funding. My second job was the same.

The field is an extremely tiresome and stressful. It was a job where the smallest mistake could have cause a project to be successful or rejected.

During the one year, I spent in the second company, I had a seizure at work. It came after a few long days, a week or so before a project submission deadline. But my colleague and bosses were great.

I met my colleague Etienne for a few years before we started working together, when I volunteered in an NGO ran by him. Actually, we worked together in both consultancy companies (first and second job). One of the bosses was a medic.

From what I remember, the seizure was a “regular” one. I was working on my PC on a cost-benefit analysis when things went blank. I woke up half hour later laying on my desk. They cleared it to put me in a recovery position after, during the seizure, they put me in the lateral security position. In simple words, they did everything “by-the-book“.

It is my “favorite” seizure because of the reaction of people around during and after the seizure.

The first aid was precise and clearly executed. They didn’t get scared and stuff things up my mouth or try to pin me down. Afterwards, things went back to normal. Nobody looked at me with the usual “compassion” or treated me with white gloves like something mysterious happened over night.