Chiara Sparks had her first seizure at a sleepover when she was 12 years old.
“My mom thought I was dead,” Sparks, now 18, said.
Her mom, Jennifer, said she will never forget that evening.
"There was colour change in her face. Eyes rolled back in her head. I was pretty sure she was gone," Jennifer said.
A few months after Chiara’s first seizure, she was diagnosed with epilepsy — a neurological disorder that effects about 1,000 people in Saskatchewan.
Chiara outlines her experiences with epilepsy in her freshly published book, Just Like The Lotus.
Chiara spent the early years of her diagnosis in fear of having seizures that often caused injury.
"It terrifies me knowing that I could be held back because of one little seizure,” she said. “So I was pretty much in my room for seven years.”
Chiara’s seizures are triggered by things such as heat and anxiety.
But this past year Chiara has been seizure-free, thanks to her doctor’s careful medication selection.
"Sometimes you associate two medications and they have chemistry that can work better and a patient can go seizure-free,” Dr. Jose Tellez, medical director of Sask. Epilepsy Program, said.
But the medication process can be tricky, according to Tellez, as taking away even one pill can result in more seizures.
Chiara said she hopes her book can reassure others going through chronic illnesses.
Some of the proceeds of Just Like The Lotus will go to the Sask. Epilepsy Program at Royal University Hospital.
