"Mummy has epilepsy, sweetie."

Sometimes being a parent means dealing with difficult questions like these....

"I'm scared by the sounds you made" (My girl told me this when I was explaining to her about my condition and my recent seizure, which unfortunately happened right in front of them a few times that day. I worried like mad about how they would be affected by it. Its a very scary sight to see someone in a seizure with their eyes rolled back, biting their tongue, going stiff then shaking uncontrollably and becoming unconcious and not being able to respond to anyone.)
"Its ok sweetie. (gives her a hug) Its good that you tell mummy that you are scared. Next time you are scared of something or anything at all, please tell mummy or daddy about it. Mummy has epilepsy and people with epilepsy will sometimes have fits or seizures. When you see mummy having a fit, you must call daddy, ok?" (She was ok with this reply and was pleased to learn big big words like "epilepsy" and learning to call her daddy using speed dial on the phone.)

"Why mummy not feeling well?" (My boy who is younger kept on asking this)
"Mummy is ok now." (Hug hug hug hug. Smiles and hugs him. He is younger so his answer is simpler :) )

"Why you go to hospital and not to doctor?"
"When you are a little sick, you go to see a doctor at the clinic, when you are more sick, you go to the hospital"

"Why you must stay there, cannot come back?" (Here meant hospital)
"So that the doctors can take care of mummy, then mummy can get better quickly and come back soon."

"What is that thing they put over your mouth?" (cups her hands over her nose and mouth)
"That is an oxygen mask. It helps people to breathe."
"Whats breathe?" and so on and so forth. Lol!

"What is the wire inside your nose?"
"That is to help me breathe."

"He scared mummy fall down"

Now, in their games, I see them playing "not feeling well", then arranging pillows and lying on them pretending that it is a stretcher because they saw mummy on a stretcher and sometimes I see my boy pretending to walk backwards and fall down (because thats what happened when I had a seizure). I let them play their games because children learn to understand new things and cope through their little games.

When the kids came to see me at the hospital, I was very touched when my girl came up to me and said "I love you, mummy." and my boy said to me "Mummy, can I pinch you?" Haha. Because pinching the pimple on my chin is his very favourite thing to do. I have a permaneant mark on my chin from his constant pinching! These touching moments make being a parent and handling all those difficult questions very worthwhile indeed! And to all mothers, cherish being a mother.