He had a convulsion, he also had an ear infection and a bit of a temperature so I took him to the doctor who thought it was just from the fever. A couple of months later, he had another, this time with no fever or infection, and he was sent for an EEG which apparently showed he had some epileptic sort of activity. So the GP put him on medication, and we figured that was the end of it.

However as time went on he did have several more. They were always very short, about one or two minutes at the most and he got over them pretty quickly. He went for another EEG a couple of years later, which showed the activity was coming from his left temporal lobe. I always knew when he was going to have a convulsion, because his behaviour changed a bit for about a week before, he became more hyper, rather emotional, and often looked very shadowy under his eyes.

I can’t say it was a huge problem in our family. His brother and sister understood, and we showed them what to do if he had a convulsion, and his dad has always been pretty good.

Jonathon’s brother has really bad asthma, and there were many times we were more worried about his health, times when he could hardly breathe. I let Jonathon stay home from school the day after he had a seizure, as he often felt really tired, but he only had two or three a year, once he was on medication, so it wasn’t too bad. I did go to the school and tell the teachers, I wanted them to be aware of it, and to also know to watch for the warning signs I was aware of such as the change in his behavior. He still went swimming, but he always had someone there watching him, usually me. He was also in the cub scouts, and he loved playing football, and was a really good player.