Living with Epilepsy

By Nicole Dimitrijevic

In her memoir Living with Epilepsy she explores the challenges and obstacles she faced because of the disorder, but also the amazing opportunity she was presented with as a child to have 'pioneering' surgery which would help to better control the seizures she was experiencing on a daily basis. She also discusses what life is like now fo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicole Dimitrijevic
• Release date: Sep 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781922890603

Book preview

Chapter 1

My Life Today

I am now 39 years old, a wife, a mother, and living in Melbourne. I have two pet dogs, Halo, and Rusty. I have a great group of friends inside and outside my work life, and I really treasure them as they are all beautiful people.

I keep in contact with some friends from high school, including my friend from the first high school I attended, whose name is Jess. Shortly after I left that school, she also left to go to a private school in Geelong. I had her phone number and sometime later I decided to contact her again to see if she wanted to meet and catch up. I am very fortunate that since reconnecting back then, we are still very close friends. She is such a beautiful person. We have so much fun when we go out to bars and restaurants or to dance. We do like a good comedy show. When we were in our early 20s, we certainly went out to bars and clubs a lot more, and I have so many great memories. If you ask her about my dance moves, she will have some funny stories to tell.

I have Jess to thank because I met my husband through a person she knew. I am a lucky girl, as he is a lovely partner.

I met my best friend, Corinna, at the second high school I attended. I left high school earlier than her, to pursue hair-dressing. In between my apprenticeship and her later years at high school and then university, we always caught up when we could. As adults, we have continued to make time for each other, and although she is now in Sydney, we always make time to call and catch up with each other, and have girl weekends whenever possible. No matter how long it has been between our catch-ups, we always pick up where we left off as if it was only yesterday. She is such a beautiful person.

These two beautiful girls were bridesmaids at my wedding in 2007. They both mean so much to me and I look forward to growing old with them and going grey together. I also have close friends from my hospital and community work, past and present. They are lovely people, and we still make the time during our busy lives to meet up a few times each year. There is one friend especially, with whom I worked closely at the hospital, and we just hit it off. Although we both have families and lead busy lives, we catch up for dinners and birthdays and love going out for Japanese to share our favourite sushi/sashimi boat.

Apart from this, I love spending time with my husband and beautiful daughter. We watch my daughter play sports on weekends or swimming and other activities during the week. We go on weekend drives, or we go to the park and get ice cream. I love watching my daughter learn, explore, grow, and develop. I love listening to her ask funny and sometimes random questions, and her perspective on the world and how she sees things through her beautiful eyes. It is so interesting to hear what she asks and see how her brain thinks of these things and processes these thoughts and this information. She is a beautiful, funny, and thoughtful girl. And, may I add, she is very direct at saying it how it is - just like her mum (shh, don’t tell her I said that). I could not have asked for a more beautiful girl, and I am very lucky.

I also volunteer every four weeks, to provide free haircuts to disadvantaged people who attend a community centre. The group that facilitates and organises this runs it from the community centre. They offer this service on a weekly basis. They also offer hot meals and a free laundry service, and provide food parcels and donated clothes if needed. I love meeting the lovely people who come to access this service. They may come from a disadvantaged or troubled background, and they all have their own unique sets of challenges and setbacks. It is a privilege to meet them and get to know them, and to see how great they look after a haircut, a chat, and a hot meal. We are there to help them when they need it.

There is a group of volunteers at this organisation who come together and give up their time to cook the meals every week, to talk to the consumers, and to serve the meals. They are so selfless and thoughtful, and the nicest people you could ever meet. The service runs every Sunday; I come on the last Sunday of every month to cut the consumers’ hair and I LOVE IT!

I am fortunate to have found my dream job, a full-time job in the community health sector as a case manager. Prior to this, I was working across hospitals and the community centre as an allied health assistant. Allied health assistants are qualified to work with and assist occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, podiatrists, and speech pathologists with therapy programs for patients in hospitals and community centres, and in their homes. When working as an allied health assistant, I especially liked it that the therapist and I needed to think outside the box and put our creative hats on when it came to modifications and ideas on how to help a client with an everyday activity, if the usual aids were not able to assist them. I really enjoyed this work and found it very rewarding to see people improve and gain a better quality of life, and be able to return to their previous level of function after receiving treatment and rehabilitation from the therapists and myself in the hospital and the community.

I feel fortunate to have been able to work with some very talented and dedicated health care professionals. They are all so knowledgeable, and they all want the same thing for the patients: to help them to gain full recovery, stay Independent, and to be given the best medical treatment or therapy intervention possible. I have been working in the health field in different areas for over 15 years now and I am still amazed and intrigued by some of the conditions I have come across, especially in the medical and surgical wards at the hospitals.

Even now, as I work in the community as a case manager, I visit some of the clients in their homes. We try to help them by implementing services such as help to clean the home, shower, or shop for food; and we connect them with allied health or other healthcare professionals, depending on what they need at the time. I see the challenges they face with the medical conditions they are diagnosed with. I have worked with client’s whom have had limitations due to pain or other factors like changes to their ability to walk, talk or eat and drink over time. This sadly overtime can take away a person’s