I have had epilepsy all my life, but I didn't know it until I was 15. When I was 14 months old, I had a febrile seizure which left a scar on my brain. Throughout my life, until I was 15, I had what I called "memory stomach aches." I would clock out and have hallucintations. Every doctor we went to said that they were anxiety stomach aches. Then in my last period of school, I had a full on grand mal seizure! When I woke up, I got back in my seat very confused as to why a gurney came to get me. We got to the hospital and they said I had a seizure, but they would wait to see if I had another one to do anything about it. (and of course this happened right after I passed driver's ed!)

A few months later I had another one. So, I finally went to a neurologist. She said that I have been having petit mal seizures all my life. She then prescribed me medication. She also said that I couldn't drive until I was seizure free. I tried four kinds of medicine, all of them didn't work. So, she referred me to a neurologist at Stanford hospital. I did many extensive tests to see if I was a good candidate for surgery. It turned out that I had seizures in my right temporal lobe, which was operable! So in 2004 I had a temporal lobectomy.

Since then I have not had any grand or petit mal seizures! I only have simple partial seizures, which aren't that bad. I decided to stay on my medicine, incase anything might happen... But other than that, I feel great! I still don't drive, but at least I don't have to waste my money on gas!