Early Introductions - Too Early

My seizures were under control for the most part and things were pretty smooth and then two events happened to upset the milk cart. The first would be running into 'her.' And the second would be an introduction into a world I'd rather forget thanks to two unruly teenage boys who had nothing better to do than roughhouse with a 7-year-old girl on her way home from school.

So things are going along fine in our family, my seizures are controlled by the use of Dilantin once a day. Then we run into 'her' in the grocery store after a parade we are both Majorettes in for different baton companies. At the site of her I break into uncontrollable sobs. My mom doesn't understand it and says it's only 'her.' I knew that it was only 'her' but that's what scared me so badly. I was afraid the abuse was going to start all over again. Fortunately, that was the last time we would see that family for a very long time, or at least 'her' with her family, for a very long time.

Then on a typical walk home from grade two in the warmer weather one day, three teenage boys, all white, grabbed me and forced me to look at a Playboy magazine. Two of them held me while the third held the magazine open and forced me to look at its pictures, including the centerfold. I struggled to get away, but I was only 7 years old and there were 3 of them. They kept asking if I had one of them, pointing to different 'features' of the women in the photos. When they finally felt like releasing me, I ran up the hill to home as fast as I could run. And I believe I told my parents what happened, but not much was done, nor was much support given.

After those two incidents, my seizures started to flare up. I was hospitalized for one week and taken off of Dilantin and put on a stronger medication, Tegretol. And for awhile again things were okay. (Are you beginning to notice the connection of sexual abuse and the Epilepsy? The abuse triggers a flare up in the Epilepsy.) Things would be fine until around age 11.

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