{Karlton Bontrager}

This past Friday- August 13th was a totally odd day for me. I had known for a couple weeks time that it was my discharge day from rehab. That’s right, I finally got released from the confines of rehab, because my team of therapists felt they had taught me all they could for therapeutic lessons, and it was high time for me to take charge and maintain my rehabilitation! From now on I will continue meeting with my Speech-Language-Therapist on an out-patient basis.

After rehab on Friday, I headed up to Providence in order to join the Providence Rugby Football Club (PRFC). We were headed to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts in order to raise funds for the club by working as volunteer ushers during the NFL preseason game between the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. We arrived at 4:00pm, although the game was not starting until 8:05pm. While I waited around for the evening to progress, I made small-talk with a few of my friends.

However, at about 4:30pm, my body started spasming like never before, and I went wild in panic. First, my eyes locked to the far left, and then I was unable to properly control my legs. I held onto the railing along the wall for dear life, and still felt out of control.

Half an hour later I awoke in an ambulance, on my way to the hospital. The emergency medical technicians classified my incident as a grand mal seizure.

For the remainder of the evening I stayed under the care of the emergency room at Norwood Hospital, in Norwood, Massachusetts. My parents kept me company for the five or so hours I was there, as the doctors attempted to figure out why my body had so suddenly seized.

The doctors treated me with three intravenous bags of Dilantin, an anti-seizure medicine. In addition, they have me taking Dilantin orally– hopefully to ward away further potential seizures. As luck would have it, my neurologist is away on vacation this week, so I cannot be seen by him until he returns next Tuesday, August 24th.

The good news is that I was not hurt. Fortunately, I feel “normal” again, except for being groggy and tired from the Dilantin.