Health Issues is a general health based blog concentrating on multiple health topics.

“There’s another child I want to tell you about. Remember Jeb ? He was only six. He had the mildest of seizures, just a few absence seizures, and he was adorable. But what an anxious family. Mom, a former nurse, read everything available and learned of allergic reactions to medication the doctors had never seen before. Jeb was having some stomach problems and had become a monster at home. His mother thought he was not doing well in school. He had taken to fighting at school and misbehaving at home. Jeb was very verbal, bright, and with lots of questions. Both the doctors and I took him aside and explained his epilepsy. We asked him to write down his questions and asked his sister, who was a year younger, to have her mother list hers. We promised to discuss them at the next visit. Jeb knew the family was very upset, but he didn’t know why. He felt different and asked, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ His mom was extremely knowledgeable, but even though she was a former nurse, she was really just a mom. She couldn’t step back, and so she became very nervous. She called me every day for several weeks. That’s another way to do counseling, just to provide reassurance by phone.

“Jeb also was given permission to call me. He didn’t always need to have his mom interpreting things for him. He could tell me, ‘I don’t like this,’ ‘I’m sick of that.’ ‘Do you want to know how I did in school today?’

“What he did was to take ownership of his condition, his medication, and of his young life. That’s pretty remarkable for a six-year-old and also remarkable for a parent to permit it and still provide appropriate supervision.

“His sister, who also played an important role, had her own questions. Her first question was ‘Will I catch this?’ That is a typical question I hear from brothers and sisters. Her second question was, ‘Why did this happen to Jeb ?’ Only after she knew that she was safe could her concern for her brother come out. There were other questions, ‘Do more boys than girls get epilepsy?’ The questions themselves were less important than the fact that both children had the right to ask them. Each child was important, and both were an important part of Jeb’s getting well.

*229\208\8*