Interview Section : YouthHealthtalk

Carole - Interview 11

Age at Interview: 20

Sex: Female

Age at Diagnosis: 18

Background: Carole is 20 and currently a part-time student. She is in a relationship and lives at home with her family. Ethnic background / nationality: White British

Brief outline:Carole has temporal lobe epilepsy and was diagnosed at 18, after four years of tests. She is on Keppra (levetiracetam) 4000 mg per day and the seizures are fairly controlled at the moment.

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Carole had an absence seizure on a train but the ticket collector thought she was messing around. She was carried off the train and felt things were 'blown out of proportion'.
Print I actually didn't, I'm going to admit [laughs], I tried bunking the train basically. I remember this man saying, “Can I have your ticket?” and I said “No I haven't got one can I pay for it?” and before I could say “could I pay for it?” and I'd said “No I haven't got one,” I had an absence and I froze and he thought it was the whole teenager “I'm not gonna move, I'm not paying for my ticket” and I completely froze. Then he was sort of shouting at me and I fell on the floor and then he thought it had got even worse, you know I was not going to move. They didn't move the train and they were like “This girl is causing problems,” and they actually, four of them came and physically carried me off the train and this police officer got involved and it got blown out of proportion. I was absolutely furious cos I was like, “How dare you? I was having an absence.” And yet again, my sister kind of stepped and afterwards and came and the next day came and spoke to them and actually dealt with it in a very different [laughs] different attitude to me. I was just so furious and it's yet again that battle of not everyone's gonna know, they just thought I was being a petulant teenager not paying and not moving and stuff like that but. It's yet again another, another thing that just happens.

full list of topics

Stories of discovery :

Experiences of different seizures :

Treating & managing epilepsy :

Living with epilepsy - everyday life :

Living with epilepsy - emotions and feelings :

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