#post traumaic epilepsy

[lesbianlovelanguage]

Post S3 Billy lives AU except the Mindflayer’s control cause traumatic brain injury which results in Post-Traumatic Epilepsy. (read more about pte here)

before I start just want to clarify that most of these are based on MY personal journey with epilepsy, and it may look different for other people 🤷‍♀️

some hcs:

He lives with Steve after he wakes up from the coma, bc he couldn’t go back to living with Neil. How the hell would he explain anything? He’s drowning in NDAs that say he can’t talk about any of it, but Steve already knows. Plus big empty house = perfect.

The first seziure doesn’t happen until about 2 weeks after everything’s calmed down. He’s just going about his morning routine, eating breakfast, when he blacks out. The next thing he knows is some random dude in a paramedic uniform asking stupid ass questions like “What’s his name” and “Who’s the president”. He’a able to answer most of them, but they still take him to the hospital.

Cue four weeks of various MRIs and EEGs (who knew there was a 48-hour EEG where he had to take home a weird looking tv thing?) He’s diagnosed with PTE and put on a new anticonvulsant. They also transfer his primary care to someone whose actually in the know about the UD, and it starts to kind of work as a form of therapy since he has to go once every month at first.

Steve becomes UNBEARABLE after his diagnosis. Any sudden noises Billy makes result in a frantic and terrified Steve barging in and asking if he’s okay (no matter where Billy is, including the bathroom).

They learn about absence seziures and wham. Suddenly any time Billy spaces out thinking about something, whether it’s a car problem he’s trying to fix or disassociating after a nightmare, Steve instantly thinks he’s having a seizure and yelling at Billy. Eventually they come to an understanding, Billy acknowledging that it’s Steve’s way of expressing his care, while Steve learns to calm his reactions to just a verbal confirmation.

Billy has to sell his Camaro. It was a really depressing moment but he’s not legally allowed to drive it and won’t be anytime soon, so it’s not worth the upkeep. He cried for two nights straight.

The most embarrassing moment of Billy’s life is the first time he has a seizure in front of the kids. He’s worried he’s traumatised the poor kids who’ve already gone through so much. Until Dustin makes a stupid joke and everyone laughs it off.

He still does pull Max aside and talk to her personally because she’s taking it the hardest. He’s embarrassed so it starts off aggressive as hell, just all blustering and “Don’t treat me like fucking glass Maxine, I’m fucking fine.” But after they scream at each other for a minute, Max just starts… sobbing, and Billy realizes that “oh shit she really does actually care” It’s the real turning point in their relationship (although they have a long way to go)

He never really goes into a like ‘remission’ period, but he learns what will push him over the edge. No weed (he’s a little sad, but he finds he doesn’t need the escape as much now that Neil isn’t there). He gets sleep and eats regularly. Absolutely NO flashing lights (even slower ones tend to give him at least a migraine). Diligently takes his meds everyday. He’s never 100% seziure free, but the time between them grows until it’s been years between them.

He gets an alert dog, and it gives him a little more comfort. He’d been crashing on Steve’s couch for a while because everyone’s scared of him living alone, but he used the money from selling the Camaro to purchase a golden retriever named Fitz because the agency has a terrible sense of humor.

Max is constantly coming up with new stupid metaphors for having a seizure. The top one is still currently “his brain deciding to do the worm for no reason.”

Once the time between seizures goes from months to years, he’s able to get his license again and he packs up a small picnic, gets Fitz in Steve’s mom van, and goes to the Quarry for the first time in a long time. The peace is nice.

#harringrove headcanon #billy hargrove #billy hargrove headcanon #again this is based on MY personal journey with epilepsy (i have a different type but it’s actually p close to late pte symptom wise?) #this is just straight up projecting on a blorbo oops #post traumaic epilepsy #traumatic brain injury #tw pte #tw tbi #tay writes #this got kind of long sorry