My eight year old son, Connor and I decided to go swimming friday evening at the Kinsmen Sportsplex. We are frequent visitors and Connor has become quite the swimmer. Unfortunatly while swimming, Connor had a seizure and vomited on deck and in the water. I settled him and rushed to tell the lifeguard who immediately cleared the pool and alerted staff. Connor suffers from uncontrollable or Refractory epilepsy and often seizures in clusters (almost continuous seizures for 2 to three days)every couple of weeks. Occasionally he may have a random seizure, but we have been lucky enough to never encounter this problem at the pool before. Due to the severity of his seizures he has suffered irrepairable brain damage which has lead to a developmental delay and autistic characteristics. It is very important to me that he enjoys life, I don't restrict his activities, and I try and let him have as many opportunites and experiences as I can. His grandpa bought him an adult sized trike this summer and he can be seen driving all around south hill with the rest of the family close behind! He is a loving, funny, energetic and remarkable boy.
It was obvious that the other parents did not understand what had happened at the pool or why I chose to let him rest for half an hour and then continue to swim. I am sure it was horrifying to each parent as their poor child swam admist a sea of lettuce and hotdogs! I am sure they thought he was just ill and that I should take him home. It was important to me that he didn't feel like he did something wrong...... he just knows that he "saw fog" and that he wants to SWIM! What made the experience bearable was the wonderful and supportive kinsmen staff.
Every lifeguard came over to check on Connor and reasure us that it was no problem, despite the fact that they had to clean the pool for over and hour and half! We were made to feel that we would be welcomed again and that there were no hard feelings despite having to fish each individual hotdog piece out with a net! Everyone was kind, supportive and very helpful. It seems that lately everywhere you go, customer service is terrible, so it was refreshing to have this kind of experience.
