Essential tremor is the most common movement disorder that causes rhythmic shaking. It affects the hands in most cases, but I also can affect the voice, arms, legs, and head. The tremor happens when the person is trying to perform a simple task like buttoning a shirt, putting on makeup or shaving for example. This disorder is a chronic condition, meaning it could last for years or even be life-long. Is the tremor caused by something more dangerous? In most cases no. The tremor can have no known cause and is benign. In order to diagnose essential tremor, your doctor will have to rule out other ..read more

Endometriosis is a disorder that causes the tissue found in the uterus to grow outside of the uterus. The tissue is often found on the ovaries, on the intestines, bladder and fallopian tubes. There are many things women and doctors can ignore when talking about their health. Pain with periods is often looked at as a part of life. If it gets brushed off the underlying problem may go undiagnosed for years. It can cause pain for years and be a life-long chronic condition.Many women struggle with this condition even after menopause. There is no complete cure. There are many different treatment op ..read more

The term “chronic” is used to describe a long-term illness. A chronic illness cannot be prevented by a vaccine, completely cured and can require lifelong treatment and management. It does not go away on its own and often is an additional stress in someone’s life that forces them to change the way they live. Every chronic illness has different symptoms, treatment, specialists, and variables. The overall point of this post is to put chronic illness into context to give some meaning behind what it is. Here are some chronic illnesses: Asthma Depression ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Epilepsy Diabetes ..read more

 If you have had epilepsy for a while now, you have most likely heard about a medication called Keppra. Most of the stories and personal experiences are negative. But, there are those who take this medicine successfully with no issues. Here are some important things everyone should know about Keppra: The reason it has many negative stories/experiences surrounding it is that a major side-effect that can occur is rage. A common way people describe this is Keppra rage, it’s a lot more common of a side-effect than is let on by most sources. When prescribed this medication your doctor wi ..read more

 https://biteable.com/watch/embed/what-is-epilepsy-1946820 What is Epilepsy? on Biteable. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder.  When activity in the brain is abnormal it can cause seizures. There are many types of seizures. When you have an EEG the electrical activity in your brain is monitored while having a seizure. This will not only help classify which type you have, it will show where in your brain the seizures originate and potential problems it can cause. Seizures can be classified by your doctor as generalized or focal which depends on where and how the abnormal activ ..read more

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make or break a day. And as a fellow spoonie, I have picked up some little habits that help to improve or prevent an especially bad day. I’ve picked these tricks up over the years and now I tend to do them without a second thought. If you can; change your pajamas when you get up. Even though you are no doubt going to ride your day out in bed, there is nothing more cathartic than a fresh set of pajamas to slide into. Mentally, I can’t tell you how much this simple trick helps me. After I’ve spent the night tossing and turning or sweating for no good re ..read more

“You can do anything you put your mind to!” Yes! Let me just tell my brain that I am not sick! While pep talks are appreciated, they can be seriously short-sighted. These are just empty platitudes people say because they want you to feel included, something many people are programmed to do. Inclusivity is a good thing in the right context, but oftentimes it’s a cop-out to avoid feeling guilty over the fact that you can’t fully participate in life as they know it. This is not to say we can’t participate in life, but it makes it difficult to navigate a world catered to “well people”. People lov ..read more

You may have heard this term before, it is a pretty broad topic and Aura could mean everything from “psychic phenomenon” to migraine auras. What a lot of people don’t know,  what I didn’t know until my diagnosis, is that auras are a symptom of epilepsy. I have temporal lobe epilepsy so that is my main focus, I can’t speak about other types of epilepsy. I would have really appreciated someone explaining this to me a few years ago, because doctors, for the most part, haven’t with me. So what is an aura? When a temporal lobe seizure starts to occur, a person may experience sudden, unusual f ..read more

This will be my first official conference of any sort as a blogger. I am thrilled to be going and participating. I will keep you updated with more to come about my experiences. I am looking forward to meeting so many wonderful people in the online advocacy community. Let me know what you would like to see. I will be posting mostly to my instagram and twitter during the three day conference so make sure to follow my social media there. Expect a long post to wrap up the conference as well! I feel very lucky and excited to have been picked for this opportunity. Want to know more about the confer ..read more

  Hello, my name is Saaim Ali. I am 19 years old and live in Buffalo, NY. I was diagnosed with epilepsy in elementary school and later decided to advocate for epilepsy at 16. I want to share my story, my life and hopefully inspire others to keep moving forward and do the impossible. I want to hopefully be able to travel the country and give motivational speeches about epilepsy. In the meantime I will attend college as a Computer Science major, work at spot coffee, and maintain my relationships with family, friends and my loving boyfriend. Thank you for reading! Check out her website: epi ..read more