Jessica Wegner

I’m taking part in Walk for Epilepsy around Australia because... 

On the 7th of April 2022, my husband Billy had his very first grand mal seizure in his sleep. 

Within 5 minutes of him falling asleep, he suddenly let out a loud scream & then began to shake uncontrollably. He was gasping for air, his face was turning blue, his eyes were rolling back into his head & then he began vomiting/foaming at his mouth. It was the scariest moment of my life seeing him like that & to this day that moment still lives fresh in my mind. 

It took 4 minutes (which felt like an eternity to me) for 000 to connect me & another 20 minutes before an ambulance showed up to our house. Billy remembers only the ambulance standing at the base of our bed from that night. He forgot who I was & where he lived among other things for approximately an hour after the seizure. Once he was stable enough to move, they asked him to walk to the ambulance to which he began throwing up & his head began throbbing from the massive ‘reset’ he had as he jokingly likes to call it.

What started off as a normal night, ended in an overnight stay at the hospital, lots of tears & no definite answers as to why this was happening to him. 

Fast forward to the 3rd May 2022. Two days after our wedding, we had Billy’s first neurologist appointment at the Townsville hospital. We were told that 1 in 25 people will develop epilepsy at some stage in their life, but more commonly most people will only have one seizure in their lifetime & sometimes no known cause will be found for it. The neurologist said all we could do was wait & see. 

Billy was then informed he could no longer drive for a minimum of 6 months until he was deemed fit to do so & that if/when he had another seizure it would reset back to the 6 months mark again. Not only had he just had a severe medical episode but he then also had his independence taken away at the same time. For those of you who know Billy & just how happy-go-lucky he is, this was the hardest thing for him to come to terms with.

On the 4th May 2022, the day after the neurologist appointment, we began our journey down to the Gold Coast for our honeymoon, only for it to be cut short an hours north of Rockhampton when Billy had another grand mal seizure in the passenger seat of the car. In the midst of his seizure & unaware of his surroundings, he kicked the dashboard & split his toe open. He began trying to climb out of the seat - to which I’m grateful he had his seatbelt on - was turning blue in the face, foaming at the mouth & his eyes rolling back in his head. It took about 20 minutes for the closest ambulance to reach us, & just as they pulled up Billy threw up all down the door of the car. The only memory he had of this seizure was seeing the car door handle full of his vomit & apologising profusely to me for throwing up in my car, knowing just how much I love it. 

Then began the long drive following the ambulance to Rockhampton hospital where Billy was admitted & I had to get a hotel room by myself where I was left spending the first night of our honeymoon alone when all I wanted was to be beside him & to comfort him. We were told to stay around Rockhampton for the next few days & after 4 days of trying to make the most of the time we had in Rockhampton & Yeppoon, we were told we could go home. 

Again, no cause was found for the second seizure, only that he has slow brainwaves on both sides of his brain, which they are still trying to prove has been potentially caused by the cerebral malaria he contacted in Africa in 2017. He was officially diagnosed on the 5th May 2022 as an epileptic without any understanding or cause.