Epilepsy and Life

I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 11 years old. After lots of tests, EEG's, brain scans, MRI's, etc the doctor determined my brain was damaged when my mother gave birth to me in 1971. He prescribed Phenobarbital at the time. This was in 1982. Throughout the past 39 years I have taken 9 different medicines to try to control the seizures , or to stop them all together. I am only on 2 for now. Life with epilepsy is difficult. When you are a teenager , you look forward to getting a driver's license. But the doctor told me I would never be able to drive because of the seizures. I kept secret that I had epilepsy, until I fell down having a Gran-Mal seizure in front of my classmates when I was 17. My parents become over protective over me. The only time they let me out of their sight was when I was in school. After high school , I worked in the auto parts store my dad owned. He would pay me $ 30 per week. Since I still lived @ home, I was able to save the money for things , like clothes, cd's jewelry. This was during the late 1980's early 1990's when clothes & music were pretty cool looking. I still would have seizures . My parent's divorced while I was still in high school. The stress of that led me to have more seizures & taking different medicines to try to control the seizures. When my mother passed away in 1999. I still had seizures. l worked for my dad until he retired in 2008. He passed away in 2009. I continued working in the auto parts store . The new owners knew about the epilepsy. One day when they were out on their lunch break, I had a very bad Grand-Mal seizure. I hit the corner of the counter, cut my cheek up so bad I had to have 7 stitches. This was in 2010. I was let go from that job in 2011. I was unemployed . I was living in a apartment building @ the time where my rent was $ 400.00 per month. I was able to pay the rent with money I had saved up that I had earned . Finding a job was hard. I cleaned houses , some businesses as well. While doing this, I would go in the local public library to see if there were any jobs available in town. Of course I walked everywhere. I would still have the seizures. Friends would take me to doctor appointments that were 60 miles away. One day when I came into the library, I was asked if I would work there 2 or 3 days a week. I of course said yes. I was able to get a government apartment that only cost less than $100.00 a month. I still would have seizures though. I have been working @ the library for 8 years now. I still have seizures. They are now affecting me again @ my job. I don't know what is in the future, but I know that I still have seizures. I still take medicines to TRY to control them. This is my life with epilepsy.