Try This for 2016!

It may change your life for the better, Forever!

This may be the greatest New Year’s resolution of your life, even though it's March. It is quite harsh and drastic but, if you choose as I have to stop your seizures from destroying the rest of your life, you may want to give it a shot. I can almost promise you that it does work. It has stopped many of my seizures from occurring, almost all!    

The #1 thing that causes the brain to go out of control especially for epileptics are Cell Phones. Put the cell phone down. Every time you put a cell phone over your ear you are losing the battle already. If you must, put the phone on speaker mode and keep in in front of you, away from your head. Your brain waves will act up like you are frying your brain cells while using a cell phone. The longer you are on your phone, whether close to your head or not, the closer you are to having a seizure. Looking at the screen of your smart phone 100 times a day or more causes the same. If you think that this is not true, talk to an epileptic because, although we have our problems, most of us like myself can see in our heads through our own eyes what is happening.

Never a good thing.

House phones however, even the wireless ones, do not ever come close to the effect of a cell phone. I have never dropped a house phone when on one nor have I ever had a problem using one either. A cell phone has a 100% chance of falling to the ground, sometimes taking you with it. The power of a cell phone can burn the brain and yet we wonder where brain cancer comes from. Not that brain cancer started when cell phones came into our lives but, it isn’t helping the the situation. The lights and flashes that we epileptics see everyday are ungodly, even through text messages. Most of us see flashes of light in our heads that others do not through our own eyes, yet difficult to figure out what it is we are seeing time and time again. This is something very common but, luckily, does not kill us once it stops.

Second to cell phones are laptops and office computers with giant monitors in our faces being stared at all day. Close the laptop or shut the computer off, give yourself a break, if it is allowed, time on your computer with more time off of your computer. I had a job for ten years behind a computer and just wished that someone would have given me a heads up on them as to what it might do. I had to stare into a monitor which I kept changing, keeping it further away from my face with screen covers on them as well and yet, nothing worked. Every year, working got worse, worse and worse for me. I just wish that I could go back in time to change what happened but, if it wasn’t going to happen there, it would have happened somewhere else. Although I never wanted to use a computer, my dream job had always been out on the field working as a carpenter or construction worker, and I do believe to this day that I would be better off then I am now.

Third after cell phones and computers are televisions. Do yourself a favor and just don’t turn them on, ever. This can be easy to do for yourself but, when you are living with a family it can become very difficult, yet if they have any feelings for you at all, will let you be and go into another room to turn the television on. Almost everyone has more than a few these days, it’s not the 50's anymore with a black and white television on wheels like a piece of furniture, although a black and white television would not cause such problems and, can be black and white if you choose to make any TV screen put on that way. Personally I cannot stand them and yet, I have every premium channel, go figure. It just makes it easier for someone else to watch something else somewhere else! With a large collection of DVD’s and Blu Rays just because.    

Forth on my list are eReaders. Reading off of a tablet such as Apple IPads, Samsung Galaxy S’, Barnes and Noble’s Nook or Amazon’s Kindle Fire; the most popular of these tablets to read off of. Every one of these tablets can cause the same as any of the above by staring into these colored screens for minutes or hours even of every day. Staring at these screens is more like, staring into the abyss of Epilepsy! So for that matter, put the tablet down and grab a book instead. An actual real page turning book which causes no problems while being stared at. It is easy to get to a local library or book store even and if not it is simple to buy one off of Amazon, eBay or Barnes and Noble on line. Anything that you want can be found. Even some libraries make pick-ups and deliveries. However, audio books are fine as well and cause no harm although are more expensive to purchase if wanted or needed. 

Fifth, store shopping, bright ones such as jewelry stores mostly but, these days every store will cause an epileptic problems. Not that you shouldn’t go but, try to keep yourself on a timed schedule, basically know what you want, find what you want, pay and get out. Strolling slowly all stores such as Macy's per say, like most people do on escalators and such will only cause you problems that you do not need! Would you like to go back to the store one day, for sure you do and will, so my best advise is to just get what you went for, pay and get out.

Sixth problem for epileptics and seizures is a big deal! Bigger then you may think.  Being driven around everyday from here to there can cause you problems, especially at night. During the day you only have the sun to worry about so put sunglasses on and done, but at night everything can and will affect you more from stoplights, street lights to break lights on cars in front of you but, mostly cars and trucks coming at you in on-coming lanes blinding you with their high beams on. Keep the sun visor down blocking the stoplights and your head turned down or away from on-coming cars. You do not want to have a seizure on the highway scaring the driver half to death or causing accidents. Personally, I have been pulled over to the side of the road many times by my wife, the side roads only though luckily for us both. Many nights leaving from one house to another I have had a seizure, then asking Michelle, “where are we”. “we haven’t even moved yet” she goes. Wearing your sunglasses at night is not a bad thing to do either, whatever keeps the lights on the road from causing you problems and protecting yourself and others, is a good thing to do.

So we understand now how to keep yourself well from seizures caused by cell phones, computers, televisions, tablets, shopping and every night out on the street and what to do about it!

Epileptic Marriages

A major concern in many Epileptic lives after getting married is how to stay married!

First before we begin I want you to read a powerful entry in the New Testament:

A Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews chapter 13: 1-8

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body. Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers. Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.

Thus we may say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper,

And I will not be afraid.

What can anyone do to me?

Remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. – The word of the Lord.

    In many lives, marriage’s get ruined because a man or a woman cannot deal with the other one’s problems. This is a major issue, especially for the person who’s watching you and all of your issues such as falling, bleeding, and seizures of all types. It is quite scary for your other half. Not working doesn’t help the situation either but, for our sake, sometimes it’s a must. Some of us after a marriage, by accident due to epilepsy become paralyzed, stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives or dead! Death by SUDEP (sudden unexpected death do to epilepsy) can happen to any epileptic which is not something I wish to share about, basically because any widow/er whose husband or wife passes away from a SUDEP incident has to simply mourn the loss of their loved one.

    The husband or wife that is not epileptic needs to, and should care and realize that the other may be in terrible condition, shape or feelings. Pain mostly that can not be seen by the other person, or that they will not be able to see what goes on inside the other one’s head, all day long!

    I know how difficult it is for anyone to watch the other one seizing from Petit Mals to Grand Mals and of all other sorts as well. My wife has a heart of gold because she fights through all of my problems more than any other person I have ever knew would. I did not marry her for all of that because, at the time of my marriage and before I was not having the problems I have today. These problems started happening right after our marriage and honeymoon and yet, for almost 5yrs now and going still she had to become a full time worker during the day and my wife/nurse at night. It is something very special about a person who has to put up with all of my rather hard to deal with issues sometimes, and yet does it very well by keeping her eyes on me always and everywhere. Not something that I am happy about but, do I have any other choice?

    Your spouse needs to be in better shape than you are hopefully to become your chef and house maid. I myself did not mind 7yrs ago with the cooking and help with the cleaning; vacuuming mostly. Being Italian as well I had to ask Michelle, my girlfriend at the time, if she was a good cook, not an okay cook but, a fabulous one it turned out to be. Barbecuing in the Spring, Summer and Fall was much more my specialty as all husbands usually are and that was taken away from me too.

    Therefore, my life consists of books mostly, reading all sorts from wherever and whenever they were published and music, yet not as often. Weekends only mostly. 

    Forgetting about my wife and I and back to a case such as yours, finding someone to drive you from here to there is another major concern. For the longest time in my life, since 2000 I had given up my Driver’s License, smartly after only 2yrs of driving. I did not feel as well as I had before, although stupidly others would rather not give up their Driver’s License instead of acquiring their Identification Card as I did and cause accidents and death to others and themselves. 

     Taking vacations with your spouse as you’ve done in your past with your families or not, is still necessary for the other to get out into world from being trapped most of the days, months and years of their lives! A honeymoon is a vacation but, a vacation the two of you find necessary after their wedding which is not true. The truth is for the two of you to find time to share with each others constant company, to know that you can deal with your spouse’s problems and issues. To be with that person on a 24/7 basis to know that you are and will give your life up for that person when and if necessary. That you will throw yourself in front of a bus or bullet for that person. That is what Love is!  

    For sure, a spouse may annoy the hell out of you, but that is a very common thing to happen. Is that any reason to leave the other person behind? No

    My wife and I worry about each other every second of everyday of our lives. She works in Manhattan. I am home which makes me most fearful knowing that I cannot run to her as I was able to do in our earlier years. For 13 hours or more a day I am not with her and it kills me to think about it over and over again. I am able to see my wife after work and before our bedtime for only about 4hrs until the next day begins all over again. Sure we take vacations, but not many. Over our seven plus years together we have only been on a few long vacations.  

    Everybody knows that a marriage is not cheap, not to say that you shouldn’t have one though because of your issues, that is a terrible thing to do or how to live. But, if you are lucky enough to find the right person to help you with your problems or difficult times, then I can only say Amen to that. If the person that you are with is afraid of you and your problems which I have seen personally, then that is not the right person for you, whatever it is you may have!   

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HOUSE-STRICKEN & STRONG

Make the best of what you have in your life because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring and it is usually worse than better. Being house-stricken and on a couch or being watched by everyone 24/7 is no way to live your life. As it is being wasted away hiding behind the bars you’ve made which others don’t see - causes rage. Somedays more uncontrollable then the ones before with hopes and dreams that someday this hell will end and yet it just continues and continues on and on and we are supposed to just smile and say that everything is okay, when you know that this life is terrible and the only thing is Nothing!

Because this is what they expect of you, to sit back and do not move. Makes them happy although you can or maybe not, but it is just all the same as long as they are happy and you are suffering, it doesn’t matter. Some of them care too much and you become a burden to them and of course they won’t ever admit it, but you catch them talking and saying how it is good to be free when so and so is not here. They may be a loving caretaker, but they wish to be free as well and I don’t see why they think that they are trapped like us at home when the truth is that it all drives us crazy in a stressful environment.

You can take that with a grain of salt because it is the most truthful thing that I have ever shared with anyone and now with Everyone! 

I rise I fall, if I walk I am fine although if I stand for a minute, I fall. This recently happened to me on Monday, MY fault - leaning against a wall speaking to Michael, my brother with my grandmother standing behind him so I fell straight down smashing the floor again, this time I did think that my elbows, the right one mostly, was broken. I notice Michael standing there and my grandmother laughing behind him. I know that my other brothers, Chris and Anthony and my wife would have tried to catch me even if they weren’t able. I was down in pain, screaming in agony - hopefully you may never experience this. I rose up and in complete aggravation at her smiling at me and so I scared her away for the rest of the day by kicking the wall I was leaning against as Michael told her to leave. There is nothing worse than having someone laugh at you who doesn’t understand!

Lucky for me though my elbow’s where not shattered or broken as they felt, but bending them was still difficult. I sat in the chair that was behind me and waited for my mother to return from her 5 min trip she needed to take. I told her what happened of course after she saw me with swollen elbow’s, I needed to put ice on. My elbow’s where patched up that night with KT Tape Pro Elastic which has Kinesiology Therapeutic Synthetic on it for athletes and anyone in pain and works great for any body part.       

There is something though that should never be forgotten which I have told myself since I was a young teenager and has kept me strong ever since which I just happened to find a picture of the other day for the first time.  I believe this to be true for the strong willed like you and I. It goes like this:

YOU WERE GIVEN THIS LIFE BECAUSE YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO LIVE IT!

 And don’t ever think anything less of yourself!

I have always told myself that I would not want this problem of mine to be cursed on my worst enemy and definitely no one in my family because I know that none of them would be able to withstand all the drama I’ve been put through. You hear all the time that there is no cure for this and for that like we did not know and it that supposed to make us happy? No. I am pretty sure that the 65 Million people living with Epilepsy on Earth have figured that out already for themselves.

You all know from my pictures, not all great looking, but I am still here after all the drama and still look the same as on my home page of my crazy life. Same guy still here for you. You have questions, I have most of the answers, lived through them over the past 4 years, but being as I said - House-Stricken - it has blinded me from the outside world; friends have to fill me in as well. I get what I need mostly from my family at parties because I’m not allowed to leave wherever I may be which is not many places!

NEWS FLASH

Money is nothing to me or to anybody really, you and I can be rich beyond belief and yet if would not change a thing about how our lives are or how we are treated by others. We will still be here getting stared down, no difference what so ever. Christopher Reeves, rich and could not help himself from falling off of a horse, breaking his spine and getting paralyzed. He is now gone. Michael J. Fox, rich and for the past 20 years has been battling Parkinson’s disease and is still acting, but behind the screen or interviews is extremely sad to watch. Money can not fix things, it just makes our doctors and their suppliers of medications and our hospitals richer because they don’t want us healthy living normal. They need us otherwise who is going to pay their salary and make them happy? Epilepsy has been around forever there’s no way that they haven’t found a cure for one of the 2 top major killers in the world, not a disease but something uncontrollable to the "lucky ones" that have it. I have an uncontrolled problem and I am stuck on a seat every minute of every hour and am told when called always to calm down and stay safe, relax!

I would love for someone to say just once to do something that I’m not already stuck at home doing. Just once would someone say “Hey Bruno, get off of that God-forsaken couch, open the door and go for a run, see if they can catch you” I know that they can’t, but who knows. It hasn’t been done in years, literally.

Is it so wrong to think that HOPEFUL thought for those who are House-Stricken and Strong, but even so a world without a cure is not the world we chose to live in.