Last month, our class was lucky enough to have a special guest speaker teach us about epilepsy, as it was Epilepsy Awareness month.

Our 45 minute presentation was filled with information which was not only informative but very helpful.

Epilepsy affects 345,000 people in Canada but anyone can have a seizure. You don’t have to have epilepsy to have seizures. In fact, 1 in 10 people will have 1 seizure in their life.

So, how do you know if you have epilepsy? It takes having 2 or more seizures for the same cause or for unknown causes.

There are more than 30 different types of seizures. The 3 most common are:

1. Tonic clonic

2. Absence

3. Complex

Seizures are rarely a medical emergency so when DO you call 911?

You call 911 if the person having the seizure is pregnant, diabetic, in water, not breathing, if it’s their first seizure, or the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes.

When you witness someone having a seizure here are some things to remember:

1. Stay calm

2. Place the person on their side if it’s safe to do so

3. Put something soft under their head

4. Don’t hold the person down

5. Don’t put anything in their mouth

Did you also know that seizure response dogs are specially trained dogs whose job it is to warn their owner that they are about to have a seizure? So amazing!