Carla Chan, a fresh-faced and bubbly 27-year-old, looks a picture of health. But she's just been discharged from hospital and has become such a regular there that all the doctors, nurses and other staff know her by name.
A recent decision by Chan (name changed for patient confidentiality reasons) to start a family is the reason for these frequent visits - not because of fertility issues, but due to epilepsy, a condition that has plagued her since birth. Her condition had been controlled well by taking anti-epileptic drugs, suffering from only one seizure a year at the most. But mindful that medications during pregnancy could affect the health of a foetus, Chan sought the help of her neurologist, who advised using a relatively new drug, Lamotrigine, which is thought to pose less of a risk to the developing foetus than older anti-epileptic medications.
However, since Chan started taking the drug about eight months ago, she has had weekly seizures. The one that landed her in the hospital this time happened on a road outside a department store in Causeway Bay; she fell and hit her head, resulting in injury.
What Chan goes through is more common than you might think. Enlighten - Action for Epilepsy, a local charity that aims to raise awareness of the condition and assist epilepsy sufferers, estimates that about 64,000 people in Hong Kong have the condition, or about nine per 1,000 people. The causes of epilepsy are known only in a minority of cases. Typically these involve some form of brain damage, such as injury, low oxygen during birth, tumours, infections such as meningitis, stroke, or abnormal levels of sodium or blood sugar. There may be genetic factors involved, but in up to 70 per cent of cases, no cause can be identified.
Epilepsy awareness remains low even though it's 'the most common serious chronic neurological condition', according to researchers from the University of Hong Kong's department of medicine, who in 2008 conducted one of the few epidemiological studies of the condition in the territory. Because of this, sufferers are often stigmatised.
'I'm embarrassed about having to carry my medication in my bag. A lot of people, including my friends, don't really know about or understand epilepsy,' says Chan, whose eldest sister, mother and maternal grandfather all suffer from the condition. 'My boss was worried that I would have a fit, so I had to give up [the beautician job] that I loved.' She says her seizures are often brought on by flashing lights, a lack of sleep or stress.