This week at Cathy's Creations, we're promoting Epilepsy awareness. At the end of the week, we'll have a huge giveaway! Here are the prizes we'll be giving away:
6 rings with purple crystal stones from yours truly
4 headbands from Maya at Maya's Bowtique
1 print from Sonya at Apple of My Eye Portraiture
1 print from MJ at MJAB Images
1 hoodie featuring the following design by Cara at Bubbles and Bows Boutique
Thanks to all the wonderful artists who have donated items for giveaway! And now to the good stuff:To enter, comment on this post! That's it. We'd especially love to hear of any experiences with epilepsy, so if you have one, share it.
For five extra entries, donate to the Epilepsy Foundation by clicking on the button on the top right of this page. That will take you straight to the foundation's donate page, so all you have to do is follow the directions to make a tax-deductible donation. After you've done that, come back here and comment again, just telling me that you donated. I don't care how much or how little (and please don't disclose the amount in your comment); every donation helps and is worth five entries into the giveaway!
I will be drawing winners at 7pm Eastern time on Sunday, November 7th. Good luck!
Gorgeous stuff! Cathy, I love how you use your talent to share love and awareness with others. I <3 you.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful items! I don't know much about epilepsy so I'm off to do a bit of research. :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful items, I especially love the saying on the sweatshirt. And since I have a niece and great-niece with epilepsy, I donated $ too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful stuff as always! Those rings are gorgeous!! i love them!
ReplyDeleteA close friend in 8th grade had epilepsy, he had a seizure in his sleep on a Saturday night and was found Easter Sunday. Every Easter friends and I light a candle in rememberance of him. Thank you for bringing awareness to this disease!
ReplyDeleteThese are all beautiful (and heartfelt) items! I thankfully do not have any family members with epilepsy, but I do have a friend with a child that has epilepsy. You are all doing wonderful things for epilepsy awareness!!
ReplyDeleteJennifer Labor
These are all so beautiful! Love them all
ReplyDeleteKrista :)
Love all your awareness stuff - very nice! :)
ReplyDeleteLinda Silva
ReplyDeleteI have a brother that had epilepsy as a child, but has outgrown it as a adult. Thank you for bringing awareness to this. You have one truly amazing heart.
Oh YAY! Another good cause! Off to donate!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, beautiful bracelets Cathy!! I have Epilepsy & I have had it since I was 8 yrs. old, my seizures started out very mild and as I got older & started having babies they progressively got worse & worse. About 5 yrs. ago I began going to a dr. up at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. because I was very concerened with the fact that all of the sudden my seizures went from only having them periodically when I was awake to only having them at night while I was sleeping & I would wake up in weird places & I would wake up sick & sore from seizing throughout the night & not knowing it because I would have no memory of it. My husband works for the Union Pacifac Railroad so he is gone for 2-3 days at a time when he gets called to work so when he was home he was observing what was happening but when he was not there it was unfortunately being left up to myself & my teenage daughters to try & be aware of what was going on & that scared all of us. So after 3 yrs of meeting with the dr.'s & continual appts. & trips to Rochester I was fortunate enough to be a canidate for brain surgery in hopes of correcting or lessening my seizure activity. I had my surgery 2 yrs. ago in December & the results seem very promising & I stay hopeful each & everyday!! There is plenty of research that could help everyone out there trying to live with Epilepsy & I found out a lot of people are very uneducated or know very little about this disease so I would like to say thank you so much for this wonderful Epilepsy Awareness Giveaway it is great to get the word out & to educate, every little bit helps!!! Thanx Cathy & I hope that you & your family are doing well!!
ReplyDeleteTake Care~ Amy Christensen Henthorne
My daughter was diagnosed last year with Benign Rolandic Epilepsy, which is the very mildest form. She often has facial seizures that range from fifteen seconds to one minute. The doctor has assured us that this type of epilepsy only lasts for about two years, then the children grow out of it. There is no known cause, and we have no family history of any type of seizures.
ReplyDeleteThis diagnosis hit us out of the blue. But we are oh so thankful for our precious girl and her happy attitude, for the doctors who have treated her, and for the God who gives us peace in the midst of this scary time.
Thank you for raising awareness of this condition. ;)
Donation made.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle & one of my best friends have epilepsy. Oddly, I never knew about my uncle until after he died.
ReplyDeleteYour guys are amazeing!
ReplyDeleteDonated! :D
ReplyDeleteYou have some amazing sponsors! Thank you so much for organizing this. Each of you are so gracious to take your time and resources to do this. All in the name of awareness. Thank you to each one of you!
ReplyDeletewhat a bunch of fabulous people you all are!
ReplyDeleteI had my first grand mal seizure when I was 16. My trigger is sleep deprivation, and it is fairly easy to control. I have recently had to go back on meds after the worst szre I'd ever had this summer. When my son Noah was 2 i noticed his arms jerking and weird eye movements. I bugged our Dr for 6 months until we finally did an EEG and he was diagnosed with Epilepsy. He was having 50+ an hour when we met his neurologist!! His type of absence szrs go hand in hand with ADD- is it a szr or is he spacing out- so Middle School this year has been a very difficult transition for him. To me the most frustrating thing about Epilepsy is the unknown. There is so little known about what causes it, I felt guilty for so long like I passed it down to Noah. Research shows it is familial, but not hereditary. Every case is different and there are never really any clear cut answers. Thank you to everyone donating and getting the word out!
ReplyDeleteI have to order 3 to meet the minimum from my lab. So pick 3 names for me please. :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE THEM!!!!~
ReplyDeleteThe only experience I ever had with epilepsy is a childhood friend had it when I was growing up. We always had to play at her house so her mom could keep a close eye on her.
ReplyDeleteVery generous of everyone. I will try and find a few dollars on payday this week to donate. :)If I do, I'll come back post.
Dwight was abused at 3 weeks old which caused grand mal seizures and started his epilepsy. He has several different types now at nearly 7 years old. He's currently on 4 different medications while we wean him off of one and onto another (back to 3 once the switch is over). We've tried a diet to help... it only made his health worse. Any more... you know he's had a seizure or cluster of them when you hear him belly laugh. It's funny but disturbing to realize *why* he's laughing.
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful prizes as usual! My little sister has epilepsy. She was diagnosed as a young adult. She has been medicated since and has only had about 6 seizures since. She has had two children since being diagnosed.
ReplyDeleteMy amazing 14 year old niece was diagnosed 2 years ago. She has been through so many different doctors and treatments. It turns out she has a form of epilepsy that is in the one part of her brain as to make her inelligable for brain surgery. It is a fatal form of epilepsy, although with treatment, we are hoping that that will be avoided. To meet her, you would have no idea! She is a bright high school freshman. She plays the trumpet. She fights with and loves her sisters. She's the spitting image of her mom. And I love her to bits. Thanks for bringing awareness to this awful issue, Cathy. <3
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you have outdone yourself, Cathy, with your amazing generosity. A huge thank you also to the others that took time out to donate their beautiful handicrafts. You are all amazing people and deserve the utmost amount of recongnition and gratitude for bringing awareness to this cause. I've worked in the medical field for many years, and saw how awful this disease was to those that were afflicted with it, and to their families. It truly is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteAll beautiful items
ReplyDeleteAs usual all the products are wonderful, and you are raising awareness to so many. Salute!
ReplyDeleteMy mother has epilepsy. It was scary at times when I was a child, but what a wonderful woman my mother is...♥ you mum....
ReplyDeleteI love that you are doing this Cathy!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I had a few friends who had epilepsy. I never witnessed a seizure, but was always prepared and they had me trained of what to do if anything happened. For the longest time I thought that would be my tie to the epilepsy world.
Little did I know what God had in store for me. While sitting at work on February 8, 2007 - yes that's right, the same day Anna Nichole Smith died - I suffered a grand mal seizure (the doctors use a bunch of bigger words to describe it, but said essentially is what it is known as) My mom also worked at the same place so had to watch me suffer from it. When the paramedics got there they had no idea what was going on and, contrary to what you do with a seizure sufferer = don't touch them as that can prolong the length of their seizure, the paramedics held me down, attempted to force me to stay still, etc. I think the paramedic learned his lesson though. When we got to the hospital, he had to be treated for a dislocated shoulder! GO ME!! My neurologist figures that a seizure that should have lasted approximately 10 minutes at most ended up lasting over half an hour. My dad was able to drive 20 blocks of traffic before we even got onto the ambulance, and the only reason I got an IV in me was because he layed on top of me on the gurney.
I don't remember any of it. The wierdest thing is the first thing I do remember is as I was waking up I heard the TV announce Anna Nicole's death and I was all "OMG what happened to Anna Nichole??" Needless to say my family was slightly amused and extremely happy I had finally woken up.
The hospital ran TONS of tests and at the age of 32, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. No prior symptoms that we know of, and thankfully I've had no more seizures but I faithfully take my meds everyday to keep it that way. And every year for my checkup I make a donation to the epilepsy foundation to help raise awareness and to help people of all ages who have to deal with this.
Thank you again Cathy for helping raise awareness! And remember that we like things shaken and not stirred!! (ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT!!!)
Melissa Dreesman
I had my first experience w/ epilepsy yesterday when one of my favorite co-workers had a seizure. Not everyone knew beforehand about her condition, because sadly she's embarrassed to talk about it. There is still a stigma for her :( I plan to educate myself, so I will know more of the what to do and what not to do's.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with epilepsy has been with a friend, two uncles, and my husband. Well kind of my husband. I wrote this story once before I think. When my husband was a child, about 2 or so, he had fallen down the stairs and suffered brain damage. Which resulted in the seizures, speech impairment, and other things. There was a scar or something running down his brain. And they told him that he would never succeed in school, be able to speak well, drive a car OR ride a bike, and so many other things. He would have seizure through the medication and everything. But then as he got older, the seizures stopped, and like years before they did a brain scan. There was nothing there. He performed above average in high school, went on to become an IT man, his reflexes in driving are normal (maybe above average from this accident story, but I'll save that for another time), and he tests high on the IQ scale. Though sometimes I doubt that. lol Anyways, by some miracle of God, this is the way he is today. And I'm still afraid that it could come back at any time, but it's been ten years, his mother has told me. :)
ReplyDeleteAs with my uncles, one I've never witnessed. But the other I was visiting when I was younger, about 12 or so, and he had a seizure. It was the most frightening thing in the world. I think that epilepsy, more so than any other ailments, is what has affected my life the most. As I'm very cautious with my son and I around things that I have come to know triggered seizures in my uncles, and my friend I had through grade school. And I avoid them even though there is nothing wrong with either of us. :(
So there is a happy story for you, and a sad story. I'm glad that you are bringing awareness to this, as most don't, and most won't even think about it. <3 <3 <3 <3 Cathy
in the past, this disease was equated with witchcraft impression. In fact, this disease is also equated with the devil or ghost rasukan if someone is attacked with this disease. Until recently in our country,Indonesia, especially the poor, if any family members epilepsy, they usually be locked, chained, like the convict.
ReplyDeletewulanseries at gmail dot com
Good Work! God bless every individual affected by epilepsy.
ReplyDelete"We Are All Angels With One Wing, We Can Only Fly Embracing Each Other"
LOVE, Love, love
Cathy the goodness and light in you and in others is truly inspiring. It is a gift to carry such goodness in this world. Truly a gift.
ReplyDeleteMary Gauvin
My mom had epilepsy when I was a child. I guess you could say she "outgrew" it. Thank you so much for bringing these causes to the forefront Cathy!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are all beautiful! - You're lucky to have such giving loving wonderful Frikes!
ReplyDeleteI had a roommate way back when, and she had epilepsy. Her cats were able to tell her before a seizure so she could make sure someone was going to be around.
Thank you for being so awesome!!!!!
ReplyDeleteso very pretty!
ReplyDeleteMy experience with Epilepsy started very suddenly out of the blue one day I was driving and drove about 5 miles without remembering any of it luckily I didn't have an accident as they think in that event I blacked out. A couple days later I started having issues with facial twitches that progressed to my head shaking and finally my entire body shaking. The best thing that happened was i had a episode at my doctors office where he could watch what happened. I was always aware of what was happening around me as long as someone was talking but the pain was always intense and I just wanted it to stop. I went to a neurologist that wasn't very nice and yelled at me for continuing to go to school when I was having episodes. He ran a CT, an MRI twice, and two EEGs. All the tests came back with no results so I was went to an Epilpsy specialist in Seattle who told me basically that she could do a VEEG where I would have been locked in the hospital in my bed for about a week in order to catch an episode. After reading about the test more I decided that it wasn't right for me and changed my life so that I was under less stress and sleeping more and now I sometimes have small episodes but only when i am tired. I found an amazing website that allowed me to be able to talk about my problem its talkaboutit.org which helped me not feel alone in what was happening. I still had classmates that would stare at me during episodes and a teacher that panicked when I had an episode and almost called an ambulance. Now I tell people about epilepsy all the time when they have misconceptions about it. I have talked to people who think its a mental disorder or that people who have seizures can't live a normal life. Hopefully the stigma associated with Epilepsy will fade away as more people talk about it.
ReplyDeleteErica
Thank you to all who have given their time and beautiful items to raise awareness for epilepsy. My niece has epilepsy and she has been able to live a normal life controlling the seizures with meds. My 20 year old son has recently been having seizures, has been in the ER 3 times in the past 2 weeks and they cannot figure out why he is having them. At one point he was having them every 15-60 seconds. They put him on a seizure med and so far it's controlling them. I know first hand how scary it is to see a loved one have a seizure.
ReplyDeleteSandra Bell Unangst
What beautiful items and such a great cause! I love seeing people use their talents to do good in the world. My only experience with epilepsy is through working in special education as a para. I worked with 3rd and 4th grade children with lots of different needs including at least one child I can remember who had epilepsy. Thanks for raising awareness!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful thing you and your Frikes are doing! Thank You
ReplyDeleteLove the rings you are way to talented
ReplyDeleteMy nephew was born at 6 months gestation with a brain hemorrhage that has left his disabled for life. He can't walk, talk, crawl, or anything. He has a g-tube, shunt, and trach. He has seizures periodically and it's the most horrific thing to have to sit and watch. He wasn't expected to live past a year especially being born at 1 lb. 12 ozs., but he just celebrated his 16th birthday on Wednesday!
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy! My mom has suffered from seizures for years. Thank you for all that you are doing to raise awareness for so many great causes!
ReplyDeletePurple is my favorite color so these are all gorgeous to me...love the continued awareness you are bringing to so many conditions and diseases Cathy!
ReplyDelete