The first seizure that we can identify with certainty was a pretty big one. Rachel’s class went on a mile run during PE, and just after they finished Rachel stopped responding to her friends. They had to escort her all the way back to the school, and after they got to the playground Rachel asked “How did we get here?”

When Rachel got home and told us about what happened, we had absolutely no idea what to think. Two words that never entered either of our minds: 1) seizure; 2) epilepsy. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but all we could come up with was “Oh, teenage girls are so weird.” Our brains did not go to any sort of health issue. Rachel has always been a very healthy, very fit girl.

Over the next two months, Rachel would occasionally tell us about another episode at school, but these reports only served to add to our puzzlement. Neither of us had any background that led us to imagine that she had started having seizures.