Battling epilepsy can be a breeze
KATH Bier is a great example of how life really can begin again at 40.
The veteran broadcaster, and co-host of The Breeze’s breakfast show in Wellington, was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy the day before she was due to run the Dunedin HalfMarathon at age 39.
Now 42, the vivacious Bier is keen to share her own experiences for today’s Purple Day to raise awareness and dispel myths that surround epilepsy .
Bier says her first seizure was when she was sitting at the breakfast table at her best friend’s house. ‘‘I leaned forward and said, ‘I think I’m going to faint’.
‘‘I just remember getting to a bedroom and suddenly being lost in a wash of old memories. I could hear voices and sense a man around me – which I now know is a typical aura of temporal lobe epilepsy. It was the most terrifying thing – I thought I was having a psychotic episode. I came to, and my friend said ‘are you OK. I thought I was good as gold and then, bang – another one hit me – so she took me to A&E.’’ For more information on Purple Day, see epilepsy.org.nz
Although the diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy was a shock and Bier admits there were many days early on when she was tempted just to stay in bed or ‘‘numb out’’ what was happening to her, she credits her friends, family and work colleagues with giving her the will to keep living life as normally as possible – right from that first day.
‘‘We raced that halfmarathon,’’ Bier says with pride. ‘‘That was when I knew that the only way through this diagnosis was to keep on going.’’
‘‘Keeping on going’’ initially meant finding new ways to get to work at 4.30am on weekdays for her 6am to 10am show with Steve Joll, get her two children, Jesse and Gus, to after-school activities while being unable to drive for a year, and learning to go ‘‘cap in hand to government agencies for assistance’’.
‘‘It was a whole new world for me. I had to go in and say ‘I need help’. And, oh man, did they help me. It is quite amazing how this country is set up for people who are desperate to keep working. They helped me get subsidies for taxis and other things.’’
She says probably the biggest thing she had to overcome was the anxiety around a seizure happening in public. ‘‘I just felt an overwhelming sense of shame. A sense of guilt for putting those around you under pressure.’’