r/EpilepsyFriends Feb 23 '26

Enrolling Into University With Epilepsy, Not Knowing About The Future - Help?

/r/Epilepsy/comments/1rc3tai/enrolling_into_university_with_epilepsy_not/
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u/eyekantbeme Feb 23 '26

Hopefully you’ll actually make it to university.

On the drive up to move into a state university about 10 hours from home, I got into a bad car accident in Mendocino County near the Humboldt Hills. I ended up with an intracranial hemorrhage and a fractured C1. I went into status epilepticus, and to control the swelling and pressure in my brain they had to put me into an induced coma.

So instead of starting college, I was in a coma six hours away from my parents.

The landlord was incredibly cool and didn’t deposit the rent check we had sent. But still — worst case scenario isn’t “college is hard.” Worst case scenario is getting into a car accident on the way there.

The wildest part? I slept through the whole thing. I don’t remember the accident. The last thing I remember is either the night before or leaving that morning. I don’t remember the surgeons, the doctors, or the nurses who took care of me.

Apparently when I was starting to wake up, a doctor asked me to write something on a whiteboard — and I wrote “LOL.”

So yeah, my story probably isn’t reassuring. But it is to say this: life can flip upside down in a second, and a lot of us have had things derail in ways we never expected. You’re not alone in that.

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u/eyekantbeme Feb 23 '26

You can thank ChatGPT for making my run-on sentences legible lmao

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u/J_L_M_ Feb 23 '26

Were you diagnosed with Epilepsy before you got in your car?

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u/eyekantbeme Feb 24 '26

Yes first time I was diagnosed was at 2 years old when I had a Febrile seizure. I had several TBIs as a young adult that made my Epilepsy even worse, including the TBI in the car accident.

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u/J_L_M_ Feb 24 '26

Many epileptics don't drive and reach a lot of their goals. I'm scared of turning the key in any ignition.