Epilepsy Clinic An Early Present
Two days after Jeff Hogue was introduced to his future wife, Pam, she suddenly jerked to the right, convulsed, bit her tongue and bled abundantly from her mouth.
Stunned, Jeff immediately called Pam’s mother.
“‘She didn’t tell you?”’ he remembers her mother asking him. Pam has epilepsy and didn’t mention it because she didn’t want to lose him.
“People shun you,” she says. “They’re afraid they’ll catch it or you’ll hurt them.”
Her sad conclusions represent 29 years of experience. Pam’s heard every myth associated with epilepsy. Possession. Mental retardation. Deranged behavior.
She’s fallen out of her chair in school and foamed at the mouth. She’s frightened teachers, friends, family. She’s undergone dozens of brain scans and paid thousands of dollars for medication. She’s bruised every part of her body.
“I feel old,” she says.
Between seizures, which hit about four times a month, Pam’s as average as a size 7 shoe. Nothing in her appearance, speech or behavior suggests medical problems.
Pam connects her epilepsy to her birth. The umbilical cord nearly strangled her. Birth trauma often triggers the central nervous system disorder. So do head injuries, poisons, diseases, tumors, even poor nutrition.
The seizures began when she was 2. All through elementary school, kids made fun of her. Every seizure followed the same pattern and lasted from 90 seconds to three minutes. She always awoke in hysterics.
They quit when she hit 13. Pam stayed seizure-free for five blissful years. But, at 18, she discovered her first pregnancy after a seizure drove her to the hospital.
Now, Pam’s seizures are sudden and severe. She doesn’t drive or work. Jeff has learned to calm her as a seizure ends. Her 4-year-old daughter watches over her as she bathes, and knows to dial 911 in an emergency.
Medication helps but costs $115 a month. With her medical history, no insurance company will touch her. Pam has sold household items when her family’s money has run out.
But a new monthly free clinic opened in Coeur d’Alene in November and promises to ease her way. The clinic, the brainchild of Dr. James Lea and the Panhandle Health District, offers exams and medication to North Idaho epilepsy patients with no medical coverage.
For Pam, it was an early Christmas present.
“I read about it and called right away,” she says. “I hope the medication he gave me will end my seizures.”
For information about the North Idaho Epilepsy Clinic, call 765-9443.
Traditional breakfast helps pay medical bills
Eating breakfast today with Santa at the Hauser Lake Fire Protection District will help a little girl battle leukemia, so get out to the station before 1 p.m.
The volunteers started the breakfast 11 years ago to raise money for a firefighter whose daughter, Shalena, had cancer. Shalena lost her battle, but the money helped her family pay medical bills.
The firefighters wisely decided to continue the breakfast and raise money for other sick children. This year, the money goes to 3-year-old Brittni who has leukemia, only one parent and far more medical bills than insurance.
The firefighters will feed you all the sausage, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, gravy, coffee and orange drink you can eat for $3 a person or $10 per family. The station is on Hauser Lake Road a half-mile from Highway 53.
Tell us about lighting masterpieces
My husband, Tom, is the Picasso of Christmas, stringing abstract webs of lights inside and outside our house. What artistic masterpieces has Christmas inspired in your neighborhood?
Point them out to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; send a fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes