THE CURE
It happens without warning. Vision fails and there’s total blackout. Afterwards, there is intense fear, confusion, memory loss and an inability to see or hear properly, and in the days following, complete and utter exhaustion.
One Tauranga mum’s epileptic seizures are so debilitating she can’t work or drive, lest she blackout on the job or at the wheel. She also needs someone to come and help around the house when her attacks leave her too fatigued to function.
Julie Pilcher suffers from cluster seizures; she can go weeks without an episode, but when it does occur, it’s never just one. At her condition’s worst, she could suffer around 17 seizures a day, for days at a time.
Not knowing when a seizure will come – or how many, or how long they’ll last – has caused anxiety and a crippling loss of confidence.
“It can get you down when you think, ‘I wish I could just drive down to the shops’, or you’re applying for jobs and being declined,” says Julie, 40. “You don’t want to leave the house. You don’t want to be around people because you don’t want to be that person who collapses. It can make quite a scene and it’s frightening, not just for me, but for other people.”
For the 15 years since Julie’s epilepsy developed after a period of intense stress, this has been her way of life and it seemed there was no light at the end of the tunnel.
She tried various epilepsy medications to no avail, and tested any and every form of alternative healing that crossed
