COPING WITH EPILEPSY: COUNSELING THE YOUNGER CHILD – JENNY’S CASE HISTORY

“Jenny, although only nine, had many long-range questions: ‘Do big girls have these seizures? Can they have babies?’ Things like that. I arranged for Karen to have lunch with us. And the two just talked. They talked about seizures, about medication, about boys. What Karen provided for her was something I couldn’t provide; she was the role model Jenny needed. Actually, it was as good for Karen as for Jen; it provided Karen with a sense of self-esteem, a sense of helping.

“You know, out of this counseling come many good things, and sometimes it takes awhile to see all of them. Another young lady who had a rough time as a teenager, both with her very frequent mixed seizures and with an overprotective father, is now married and has a baby. The family recently had a real scare when they thought she had cancer. They really panicked, but Greta remained cool. She handled it far better than her folks. The diagnosis proved wrong, and when we talked about it recently she said, ‘You know, I went through so much in learning to deal with my epilepsy that it made me a much stronger individual.’

“One of the best things about this job is the friends you make with the kids. They’ll call you up years later, as Greta did, just to say ‘Hi!’ or to tell you they’re engaged, whatever. They’ve become my friends.