Take a look at my side bar! My friend Stef made it for me! She also made it big enough to put on T-shirts! YAY! Want to put it on your blog? or use it as a profile picture on Facebook? Go for it!
My plan is to put them on T-shirts for me and the girls, and wear them often. There's a veterans day parade tomorrow and we're all going to wear them. Or well, maybe sweatshirts because it's in the morning and the lows have been in the 30's here. Quite a difference from 90's last week! but I'll take it!
Anyway. The point of my post today is awareness. Epilepsy seems to be taboo. In all honesty, 2 months ago I didn't know alot about Epilepsy, I knew what it was, and I knew what seizures were, but I didn't know what I know now. Even now, there is a ton I don't know or understand.
Almost everyone I know, and have talked to, seems to know at least one person with Epilepsy. One survey showed that 1 out of 3 adults, know at least one person with Epilepsy.
Since last month was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'm going to use Breast Cancer as a comparison. Again, I'm not diminishing the severity of the disease, Its just one of the more well known causes and diseases.
Everywhere you go you can get mugs, shirts, bumper stickers and other things to support Breast Cancer awareness and research. You can even buy Lay's potato chips that come in a pink bag! Have you seen anything for Epilepsy? Some potato chips in a purple bag? Even a mention of it on the news? A poster?
I haven't seen anything. And it breaks my heart. Truth be told, last year at this time, I wouldn't of known it was Epilepsy Awareness, because the cause was never close to me, or splashed all over. But what if they mentioned it on the news? What if you could go to the store and find Epilepsy Shirts? What if it wasn't Taboo?
Here are some facts Epilepsy
There are 200,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
Epilepsy affects 3 Million Americans
10% of Americans will experience a seizure in there lifetime
15.5 Billion Dollars is spent in direct and indirect costs each year
And as I mentioned before 50,000 people die each year from SUDEP and Epilepsy related incidents.
There is no cure for Epilepsy. It sometimes can be controlled with medications, Diets, and surgeries, but there is no cure.
Compare that to Breast Cancer.(2009 Estimated Stats)
192,370 new cases were diagnosed
There are an estimated 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the USA
40,170 were estimated to die in 2009
So as far as new diagnose's, deaths, and people living with breast cancer and Epilepsy, the numbers are kind of neck and neck. Not exact, but pretty close. Yet the publicity for Breast Cancer is tenfold what it is for Epilepsy. Not to mention, the reasearch funding that Epilepsy gets is minimal. I was unable to find exact figures, but the NIH spends 30 Billion each year on Medical research. .5-1% of that goes to Epilepsy. Nearly 1 Billion was raised and used for Breast Cancer Research.
Again, please don't misunderstand this entry. I am in no way trying to diminish Breast Cancer, I'm simply using it for comparisons sake, and I hope and pray that any and all diseases can someday have a cure.
So please, I bet of you, don't let it be Taboo. Talk about it. Raise awareness. Let people know that they don't need to suffer in silence.
Facts and statistics that are in this post were found at the Epilepsyfoundation.org and Cancer.org.
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