Watch the video above:Digging into our DNA to learn more about epilepsy. Crystal Goomansingh reports.
TORONTO Just for a day, Guida Clozza wanted her 21-year-old daughter to feel like a princess.
It was more than two decades ago when her baby, Daniela, suffered bouts of seizures at only three months old. The diagnosis didnt come right away, but it became clear to doctors: Daniela had epilepsy.
She would have tonic clonic seizures nicknamed grand mal seizures that often came in clusters, sometimes five to seven in one night. She was also at risk of SUDEP or sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.
That was the scariest part for my husband and I, always worrying that her next seizure would be her last seizure, Guida told Global News.
READ MORE: Inside Epilepsy
The Clozza family trudged on: their daughter tried a string of medications to see which were most effective. They switched to a ketogenic diet for four years. Danielas parents, Guida and Wally, rearranged their professional lives and hired a nanny.
You just readjust your whole life. She needed routine, thats what we found immediately. That was probably the most difficult part, thinking you have your only child, you want to go the zoo or stay out all night at the water park. It never happened for us, she said.
Because we had no formal diagnosis, there was no rhyme or reason where these seizures were coming from, Guida said.
The seizures, still tonic clonic ones for the most part, have followed Daniela into her adulthood.
Originally posted here:
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