Lake Bell opens up about daughter's epilepsy diagnosis: 'We want to be reminded we are not alone'
Lake Bell is bravely opening up about her daughter’s medical condition.
The Bless This Mess star, 41, revealed in an Instagram post that her 5-year-old daughter Nova has epilepsy, the neurological disorder that is associated with unpredictable seizures. She is sharing the news in hopes that others in a similar situation to her and husband Scott Campbell know that they are not alone.
“My daughter has epilepsy,” wrote the actress/director/screenwriter, who also starred on shows including Boston Legal, How to Make It in America and Children’s Hospital, at the the start of the poignant post that was accompanied by a photo of the hazel-eyed girl.
She went on to reveal that it’s taken “a few months” to “gather the courage” to share the news publicly “because I do not want to endorse its existence.”
Bell also admitted that she “didn’t know why I should share it. Why tell a bunch of strangers?” But she realized that, amid isolating with her family during the coronavirus pandemic, ”I crave community. We all do. We want to be reminded we are not alone in any reality.”
She wrote that she is “grateful” to Campbell, the artist and tattoo artist she married in 2013, for “his research and smarts,” and said he’s “giving these seizures a worthy adversary. Scott and I, along with the care of the incomparable Children's Hospital Los Angeles, will conquer them.”
She hopes to conquer the seizures and “fight for Nova” so the girl “doesn’t have to cry in fear after she gets sucked into one. They are like invaders, that come on without invitation nor warning.”
Bell ended her post by saying it’s the “beginning of a long journey and I want/need to remember that I am not alone. And if you are dealing with a loved one with epilepsy, I get it... You are not alone.”
The post has generated a lot of positive and supportive comments from friends and fans. January Jones and Kate Beckinsale sent sprays of emoji hearts.
Bell has spoken about the births of both of her children — also Ozgood “Ozzy,” almost 3 — as well as the various complications that came during both. When Nova was born, in Brooklyn in 2014, the child’s umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck during the home birth and she wasn't breathing.
"It was very scary. She was on my chest, and she wasn't breathing," Bell said on Armchair Expert last year "The midwife gave her three lifesaving breaths on my chest and my husband was there. She came to life and we saw it."
She had an even scarier experience with Ozzy, born in L.A. in 2017. He weighed 11 pounds and also had his umbilical cord around his neck. Bell said that time it was “life and death” with the “entire room ... trying to resuscitate him.” While he was without oxygen for four minutes, he was revived by paramedics and spent 11 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
While Bell and Campbell were worried about life-long complications, she said that Ozzy has hit his milestones “early.” She said she dealt with guilt because she was the one who opted for the home birth for her son, leading to her suffering depression, which she treated with antidepressants and therapy.
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