Nicole Bunnell

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I want to raise money and make a difference for people living with epilepsy. 

Please help me by giving whatever you can using the 'Donate' button. The more people that know about the walk, the greater the impact, so please also spread the word by sharing our page with your friends and family. 

Thank you in advance for your generosity, it means a lot!

I’m taking part in Walk for Epilepsy around Australia because ...I want to raise awareness about epilepsy and especially my sons story. 

Lincoln is now 11 years old. 

His first 2 1/2 years were perfect. Typically developing in all areas, had amazing speech and was developing just like his older sisters had done when they were little. 

Then things changed: At this time we started to notice some unusual type behavior, and his speech had slightly regressed. 

Then at the age of 3 , he was diagnosed with Autism. However, we had questions??

After numerous doctors, specialists, medical professionals, therapists, neurologist, psychologists, EEGs and MRI tests and a lot of research and questions at the age of 6 we got a medical diagnosis of ‘aphasia epilepsy’ - a rare form of epilepsy called CSWS. 

Lincoln does not have tonic clonic seizures. However, he has absent seizures and continuous unusual brain activity.

Unfortunately, epilepsy has changed our son’s life forever. This has caused numerous other developmental disabilities. 

Lincoln has Autism, ADHD, OCD, sensory processing disorder, executive functioning disorder, intellectual disability, and has unfortunately lost all speech, and he’s classified as nonverbal. His speech will never return.

Lincoln can run, jump, play, swim, kick, dance, and be physically active however, due to the neurological issues, struggles to understand  and comprehend normal everyday life.

At 6 years old Lincoln went on intense steroid treatment under the guidance of a pediatric neurologist that specializes in epilepsy. This was to help stop these seizures and hopefully gain speech back. After 11 months on steroids, the seizures had stopped, but unfortunately speech did not improve or return. The damage was done and we could not reverse the affects of these seizures. We have had to come to terms with the fact that Lincoln will be nonverbal for the rest of his life. He uses Proloquo2Go as a form of communication on his iPad and through facial expressions, gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication, we are able to help him with his wants and needs. This can be extremely frustrating for him and challenging for us to understand what he is feeling and thinking most days. 

Lincoln has always been such a happy, smiling, caring, affectionate boy.

This year after being seizure free for over 4 years Lincolns Epilepsy has returned. Over the past five months, we have slowly seen his smile fade. He’s aggression increase, self harming behaviuor start, damage to equipment and property, refusal to go in the classroom and follow any directions and requests. 

This has led us to investigate further and realize that our poor little boy, once again is suffering for painful and aggressive Epileptic activity.

Lincoln is now back on anti-epileptic medication and we are slowly starting to see  our gorgeous boy returned to us. 

A family’s life with a loved one who suffers epilepsy is traumatic and devastating for everyone involved. Lincoln is so very lucky to have two caring and supportive older sisters,  grandparents, therapists, teachers and some other family members who love him unconditionally. However, this can also be isolating and lonely. When you have a child with a chronic, severe disability many people shy away from the family. 

I am blessed to have a extremely, strong, caring, supportive husband that works so hard to keep our life as normal as possible even through the extremely, emotionally and physically tough days.

We, both along with Lincoln older sisters try to give our little boy the best: we focus on all the amazing things he can do! 

We know that Lincoln will always be dependent upon his mum and dad and his sisters, but our focus now is to give him the most independent happy life we can. 

We try to keep life as normal as possible but also realize there are times when we need to modify or change our plans to best suit our sons needs.

Many people can live with epilepsy without it affecting too much of their everyday life however, some people with epilepsy can not, it controls their life and the life of people around them. 

We think it’s important to talk, educate and show others that life can still be amazing and fun even during some of these challenging moments.

Please support people living with this chronic disease - be kind, be thoughtful and don’t be scared💜