Kelli's 5th grade teacher complained that she was staring into space and not paying attention in class. But no one thought of seizures until the school nurse saw Kelli staring. The doctor believed that she was having complex partial seizures and gave her Tegretol. She took it regularly but kept having seizures.

When she was 16, Kelli's seizures stopped. Because she felt that the Tegretol had made her put on extra weight, she stopped taking it on her own. She stayed seizure-free, lost the weight, and got involved in her passion, the performing arts.

At 18, she went to off to college to study drama. Then the seizures returned, but in a much different way. While she was walking down the campus, she dropped to the ground without warning, made repeated sounds deep in her throat, and lost consciousness for several seconds. After this experience, she started taking Tegretol again and later added Klonopin to treat these drop seizures. She began having fewer of them.

When she was 24, Kelli had her first tonic-clonic seizure after she missed taking her medication and didn't get enough sleep. She began to realize that her lifestyle was contributing to the unpredictability of her seizures. It was a difficult time. Her friends didn't understand why she no longer wanted to stay up all night partying. And her stage performances were interrupted by horrible throaty noises. "I felt my life was limited by this seizure disorder," she lamented. "My big dream—to be an actress—was on the line and no one understood how I felt."

Kelli knew she needed the help of an epilepsy specialist, so she made an appointment at a comprehensive epilepsy center. She was admitted to the hospital for five days of 24-hour video-EEG monitoring. While there, she experienced three types of seizures: absence, myoclonic jerks, and a tonic-clonic seizure. She was given the diagnosis of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and her seizure medicine was changed to Depakote, the medication of choice for JME. She also kept taking Klonopin.

Kelli experienced all the classic side effects from Depakote: nausea, tremor, hair loss, weight gain, and menstrual irregularities. Within two months she was switched to Topamax at a relatively low dose. Two months later the seizures were under control but she felt tired and depressed.

Now Kelli takes a combination of low-dose Zonegran, Diamox, and Klonopin and she has been seizure-free except for a rare myoclonic jerk during her menstrual cycle.

Kelli feels that no one who hasn't been through it really understands what it's like to have seizures. She believes that her passion for the performing arts has gotten her through this tough time in her life. Now that her epilepsy is properly diagnosed and treated with the appropriate medication, her big dream is a possibility!