Well, I call her my girlfriend, but I just decided on what engagement ring to get her today, so she'll be my fiance soon. Do any of you have epilepsy, or know people that do? What are y'all experiences with it? Also, do any of you have service dogs? Her service dog's name is Sidekick and he's a black and white Border Collie.

No one's entirely sure why, as far as I know, but dogs can for some reason sense when an attack is coming and alert people, so that should be enormously helpful to her. It just means she can put herself in a safe place until its over.

I know someone with it as a kid and as long as you know what to expect and make sure the person is somewhere safe until its over, it isn't so bad, depending on the severity of the person's case.

Again, the dog should be enormously helpful.

While, I nor anyone I know has Epilepsy, is Sidekick there to warn her of an impending Epileptic "episode" or however it manifests with her?

It never ceases to amaze me how closely the "human-canine" relationship can be.

I hate to hear that her seizures are so bad that she needs a therapy pet :( Still, border collies are incredibly intelligent (from Wiki: "The Border Collie is an intelligent dog breed; in fact, it is widely considered to be the most intelligent dog breed" very loyal, and wonderful companions.

My youngest has a seizure disorder, but it's well-controlled with medication, Thank God. She has enough troubles without suffering from seizures, too (she's non-verbal autistic.) So, I can't really give you any info on how the therapy dogs work, except that every study I've seen has been positive.

Congratulations on your upcoming engagement!

Thank y'all! :)

And yeah, Sidekick is trained to alert her when she's having partials (because they usually lead to grand mals), and will also have a vest with meds to bring to her after she's had one and can't reach them. He'll also lay on her to keep her from getting up after she's stopped seizing until she's well enough to stand up on her own.

But yeah, I'm really looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her. Epilepsy (especially hers since she has 4 or 5 different types of seizures, and it looks very unlikely that she'll ever be seizure free) definitely adds a unique dynamic to our relationship, but it's nothing "deal breaking" by any means. (Honestly the worry over her is a million times worse than any day-to-day inconveniences that arise because of it).

A good friend of mine married a girl with epilepsy more than 40 years ago. She did very well on her medication and I'm fairly sure the meds are better now than they were then. :) They've had a long and seems like happy marriage, two kids and three grandkids.

Just to encourage you a bit. And yes, dogs are wonderful, amazing creatures.

That's a sweet story:)

As to the OP,I wish you and your future bride the best of luck, and Sidekick is a totally awesome name for such an exceptional, specialized dog.

Growing up I had a friend who had epilepsy (which I only found out because she suffered a seizure in class and had to be taken to the nurse's station) but with medication it was under control. She never let it define her.
We reconnected on facebook a couple of years ago and she's now happily married with a wee'un who does not appear to have the condition.

I found this site because I remember learning that both Julius Caesar and Napoleon suffered from seizures, and it turns out a great deal of luminaries from history had or may have had epilepsy. Just thought to pass it along:
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/epilepsy-famous.shtml

My husband's daughter has raised numerous service dogs for Seeing-Eye (puppies need to be raised in good homes that will socialize them to all kinds of environments until they are 18 or so months old and then begin their formal training). She and his ex-wife just returned a puppy yesterday to begin his training....

Locally, we're considering signing up for a different program wherein volunteers only take dogs home on the weekends after having gone through extensive training to learn all the commands the dogs are learning. These dogs train to provide many different services including medical service dogs such as your girlfriend/fiance now has. Others train for blind, hearing impaired, and other disabled people.

As to epilepsy, I understand that my father had this condition - it was as a result of a car accident. He took Dilantin to prevent seizures and as I understand it, he would have lived a long life despite the prognosis...

But congratulations both on your planned proposal and on the new addition to your family ;-) I'm sure it is such a relief to you both to have such an amazing dog in your lives