Dings

by Lance Fogan

DINGS tells a family's dramatic clinical and emotional journey as they try to understand why their third-grader is failing school. They assume that his problems stem from anxiety and stress because Dad is serving in the U.S. military in 2006-7 Iraq. The child's blank outs are finally identified by a neurologist's it's epilepsy! The parents are devastated. Will Conner ever be able to live a normal life?

280 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[Lance]

It's an intriguing medical mystery. An 8 year old is failing school. He's bright. His dad is serving in Iraq in 2007. The adults persue psychological evaluations and testing. No one recognizes his blank out non-convulsive seizures. Quite emotional. I could feel the mom's fears and confusion.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the first four chapters, there was a good story in there. In chapter two or three, I got the mother and daughter mixed up too much for my taste. Chapter four had a clunky, italicized, point of view and perspective shift explaining a medical procedure. I think it may have helped the story, but I wondered (and still wonder) if there was a better way to include it. It also started more with the end or the middle of the realizations, which isn't wrong, but left me feeling as if this didn't flow smoothly. Perhaps just letting the events unfold naturally would have left me with a more satisfying story. The mother's character felt as if she was written on a pendulum. I almost wish the author had taken her pendulum one way or the other and let it stay there.

However, after chapter four, and once you got around the semi-chronological arrangement there was a good story in there. It is a story of a seven-eight year old boy who's parents are coming to understand he has a serious medical condition not often discussed. This story should read as a balm to parents who are going through this. It does seem a bit on the predictable side, though the ending did exceed my expectations and left my heart-warmed. It was a good, and necessary story--which are often the trickiest to tell.

[ASHWIN PATEL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seizures explained

Written in simple lay-person's language, this story makes it easy for everyone to understand what seizures are and what different kinds they are. It is almost a complete encyclopedia of that awful and usually scary condition that people often don't understand or adopt a careless attitude towards. Thanks to the author for putting it in the form of storytelling for readers to grasp the importance of a major medico-psycho-social issue and accept it as a norm and a part of a daily life.

[Manuel Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real life horror story.
"Dings" tells the story of how a mother deals with her 8 year-old son that has epileptic seizures. The poor mother has to deal with the situation all by herself, since the boy's father is in Iraq.
Anyone that has, or knows someone with epilepsy can understand this and will find this novel to be a wealth of information. "Dings" is well written by, Lance Fogan, a real-life retired neurologist.

[Rebecca Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So relatable

I felt for poor Connor! I never convulsed, but his dings sound so familiar. Epilepsy stigma is sooo real, and the author definitely showed that off, all while educating people about the realities of epilepsy; it's not a death sentence, it's not contagious, and it is real.

[Traceylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why

This is about a young boy who s dad just gets back from Iraq and they realize his son has been having seizures and has epilepsy