How I used technology to help with my daughter’s epilepsy

How I used technology to help with my daughter’s epilepsy

https://www.trustedreviews.com/opinion/how-i-used-technology-to-help-with-my-daughters-epilepsy

Publish Date: 2026-05-30 06:01:00

Source Domain: www.trustedreviews.com

When my daughter was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), it meant a lot of changes for us to help manage her condition. While epilepsy is different for each person, and it can change over time and with medication, we knew that we’d have to help manage it.

My daughter’s epilepsy started suddenly one morning when, out of nowhere, she had a seizure while we were on holiday in August 2025. We hoped it would be a one-off, but every six or seven days, she’d have another seizure, always in the morning after waking.

After a full diagnosis of JME, the medication has worked, although we did have a period of breakthrough seizures at the start of January 2026, which meant that we had to reapproach her routine. Here’s what we did.

A wireless doorbell

When she had first had seizures, my daughter would know she was about to have one. Not everyone gets a sense, but she did. It was important that she didn’t have to move, and that we could come to her. The easiest way to alert us was with a wireless doorbell, which we picked up from Argos.

This came with the wireless press, a plug-in chime that we put downstairs, and a wireless chime that we put in our bedroom. Any morning that she woke up and felt funny she could press the button, and we’d come to her, reducing the dangers of her falling over and hitting her head.

The benefit of this system is that it’s cheap, and all of the bits are portable. So, my daughter can move the wireless press around with her, and the entire system can go with her. When she stayed at her grandparents’, for example, she took the system with her, and we’ve taken it to a hotel, too.

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Since going on medication, she no longer gets any indication that a seizure is about to come, so we’ve had to change how we manage things, but we leave the doorbell with her as a precaution.

Gentle wake-up

A trigger for my daughter is being woken up with a…

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