Owen Canfield: Dealing with epilepsy for 36 years

After the unsuccessful surgery — an attempt to eliminate the petit mal seizures caused by a form of epilepsy — son Dan decided to pack up and go to Arizona. He was 21 or 22 and, with nothing to lose, figured to start a new life out west. It turned out to be a great move.

About the seizures — they are not the type that cause loss of consciousness, collapse and physical shuddering, jerking and twitching of limbs, known as grand mal seizures. The petit mal seizures cause the victim to “freeze,’’ stare straight ahead and remain in that state for up to 20 seconds. They might be accompanied by brief, unintelligible verbal outbursts. Recovering, he experiences overwhelming fatigue, often requiring immediate rest.

Dan is 50 years old. He’s very strong and still athletic, as he was when he was a kid. But the seizures restrict him in many ways.

He was about 16 when he first began having seizures. Despite extensive treatments over the years and surgeries in Boston and at Yale-New Haven, the seizures persist. They are damnably unpredictable and can and do attack the victim anywhere at any time. Dan has been dealing with that fact for some 36 years.

Rewind to Dan’s move to Arizona, around 1991. While his epileptic condition was unchanged, he found history-rich Arizona to be a welcoming place, full of new things to see and do. He got a job immediately at one of Scottsdale’s big resort hotels (Big Break No. 1) and enrolled at Scottsdale Community College, from which eventually he would earn an two-year associate’s degree. Unable to drive because of his affliction, he got around by bicycle or, for longer distances, by bus.

Always one to deal with problems head on, he was never a complainer and made his way very well.

And then he met Annette (Big Break No. 2), a Florida State University grad who had a responsible job in the office at the same resort hotel to which Dan reported every day.

They had seen each other from time to time but had never really SEEN each other, until one day they came face to face, had the chance to say more than “Howdy,” and after a bit, they were dating and . . . suddenly, zing went the strings of their hearts.

The wedding took place in Pompano Beach, Fla., Annette’s home state, 18 years ago. What a time! Every one of Dan’s nine brothers and sisters attended, some with spouses, and little Jenna Toth, Maureen’s daughter, was flower girl.

When the family decided to head back to Connecticut some 13 years ago, their son Eric was only a year old. But they sold their house, rented a UHaul and headed east. Dan’s sister Tricia took time off from her job in Utah and drove the Canfields behind the UHaul.

Home at last, they settled in Thomaston. Eric, now 14, began singing, dancing and acting as soon as he could listen to music and has been in innumerable plays and productions. He’s as comfortable on stage as most people are in their living rooms.

Dan is often in touch, sharing their stories, with others who also battle the petit mal seizure disease. He loves writing, authors a blog and is writing a book.

I’ve had a look, and even if he is my “kid’’ I have to say, I think it’s terrific.