In July 2013 I experienced my first seizure that was SEEN by another person, my brother Bradly. Before this I was finding myself waking up confused, unable to find my words, I would drop items from my hands. Chunks of time would go missing as well as chunks of my tongue and cheek, at first I thought I was sick and as it continued I started to think of any and ALL possibilities, this included thinking that my boyfriend the time was poisoning me.. yes, now I look back and think “oh man!” but what difference did I know at the time? I was 21 years old this had never happened before! I was scared. The relationship crumbled and that is when I asked Bradly to move to Aberdeen, SD to help me figure out what was going on. I was four hours away from home, I was feeling loss and unsure of myself and my surroundings no friends, and no family. I was so grateful when he came, I am sure he was feeling the same until that afternoon in July. My brother Bradly was taking a bath, I was sleeping. Among the other issues I was experiencing I was so tired all of the time. After he had spent sometime in his bath he heard a knocking and naturally thought someone was knocking at the door. He was getting very angry that I was not getting up to answer the door (understandably considering he was covered in bubbles) so he got out of the tub bit the bullet and when to answer the door. Once he had made it to the bottom of the steps he opened the door to see no one else around, the knocking continued. He said it was then he knew something was wrong, he raced back up the stairs back to my room and ripped open the door to find me off of my bed banging my head on the wall, rubbing my face on the long green shag carpet that was in my apartment ( had not been replace in YEARS). At this point Bradly is in shock, wet half naked and he had no idea what to do (bless his heart). Thankfully he was able to work it out to get me to a safe place, the hospital was a block away. I was 21 years old at that point, now waking in the ER. I was sore, confused with a massive headache and severe rug burn on my upper lip, cheek and chin. I could hardly talk it hurt tremendously. Bradly was next to me to ease the confusion, I had never experienced a seizure or even thought about the function of my brain, up until this point I didn’t know how serious this situation was. That was the start of this journey. Now I am 26 years old, still unable to get an answer on why after all of these years, after all of this time, these seizures they just “appeared” like an unwanted magic trick. Since that first ER visit I then have had multiple more hospital visits, a number of EEG’s, sleep study’s all showing normal. Racking up hospital bills, missing out on work looking “ just fine” being told “nothing is wrong” coworkers didn’t understand, until the moment I stared to have them at work waking up on the carpet with those same awful feelings and at times with urine on my pants…I was at a loss. I put my foot down when I woke in the ER the nurse standing over me looking at me with this face.. I am a CNA so I new this face. So I took my phone and turned on my camera flipping it to “selfie mode” it was then that I saw the stitches, I saw the bruising and the blood. I had walked out of a residents room with a coworker she said all was fine when we left the room, she was talking to me and when she turned to look at me I wasn’t by her side, a nurse ran she followed, when she turned the corner I was on the floor blood all around. I had hit my face on the box that held the fire extinguisher. Four stitches later and the conclusion that my job was now unsafe for me and my residents I have come to terms with my EPILEPSY. Since July 2017 I have had 19 others that I have been able to take note of and get video footage of in hopes to find an answer. After sleep studies, EEG’s, and multiple medications the reason why has not been found, and I am slowly realizing it may never get found. After so long of this mystery battle bringing such heartache and turmoil it is time to embrace this new chapter and turn my out cry’s of pain into the out cry’s of change. My fellow humans! My brothers! My sisters! Consider this cause…my cause, and I will…..NO WE WILL SEIZE THE DAY! My strength will not be diminished. And your strength pushes me to make the best out of each day.