New York Times Article on 2-20-07

Re: Re: New York Times Article on 2-20-07

Submitted by lisam11463 on Sat, 2007-07-14 - 13:48

"Changing the misconceptions society has about epilepsy, by educating one person at a time"....Lisa-Marie Kinsman Author of "Free at Last, My Lifetime Battle to Overcome Epilepsy". Here is the article from The Daily Item of Lynn. Since it was never published online, there is no way I can post the actual article, so I have to type it out freehand. Here goes. Former Lynn woman writes book about epilepsy battle By Robin Kaminski The Daily Item Former Lynn resident and epilepsy survivor Lisa-Marie Kinsman has penned a memoir about living with the traumatic syndrome and of brain surgery that liberate her from her painful past. The book, "Free at Last, My Lifetime Battle to Overcome Epilepsy", takes place for the most part in Lynn where Kinsman lived for many years and graduated from Lynn Vocational Technical Institute in 1982. Now married and living in Pennsylvania, Kinsman, 44, has been an epilepsy advocate and online counselor to over 1,600 clients since 1995 and has been an inspirational speaker on behalf of the Epilepsy Foundation for the past three years. Frustrated with her condition, Kinsman said she sought a solution to her syndrome through three doctors described as "angels" at SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York that performed brain surgery to remove her left hippocampus. Awake four roughly 14 of the almost 16 hours of surgery that was performed through a 10 inch incision in her skin, Kinsman said her skull bones were cut with a tool similar in size to a carpenter's jigsaw. "My surgery was performed at the end of an era in medicine when it was necessary for most patients having left temporal lobe surgery to be fully awake, so they could be tested throughout the surgery," she said. When Kinsman awoke from the anesthesia portion, she said she came out fighting. "I had the operating room in sheer and utter chaos when I atttempted to get off of the table with my skull wide open", she quipped. "I demanded a cigarette, along with some nasty adjectives and told the 12 doctors and nurses that I was going home!" Following a yearlong recovery of "sheer hell," Kinsman said she now has more energy and feels free from having to take roughly 18 pills a day in the past. "I was so nervous about the surgery, that I had horrific self- inflicted headaches from worrying so much", she said. "I had lived with epilepsy ever since I was 2 years old and kids had always teased me about it. Parents didn't want their kids hanging out with me". According to Kinsman there are 3 million Americans who are afflicted with epilepsy, roughly 50 million worldwide and another 200,000 who will be diagnosed with epilepsy this year. "I say roughly because there are so many third world countries that still hide epilepsy from society because it is still believed to be a shameful disease with a terrible stigma", she said. "It is among the least understood of chronical medical conditions, even though one in three adults knows someone with epilepsy. Kinsman went on to say that people who are blind, deaf, wheelchair bound or have Down's syndrome, have been accepted into society, while those with epilepsy are "still living in the closet". "Everyday is like a gift and there are so many people who rush through their days and don't stop to smell the roses", she said. "But my time is very precious to be because I had to fight for my freedom for the past 30 years". The recently published book can be found at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Publish America.