My Story

I had my first seizure in Kindergarten when I was 6 years old and I was diagnosed with epilepsy a little later that year; at the time I was having about 50 seizures a day including the seizures I had during sleep. I had my first brain surgery shortly after I was diagnosed, and for 5 years following the surgery, I was seizure-free. Roughly around the time that I started Middle School, my seizures came back. Since then I have had periods as long as a few years during which I did not have a seizure, but for most of my life, I have been having seizures consistently. Within the past year there have been days where I had 20 – 30 seizures, there have been days where I had 2 or 3, and there have been days where I did not have any seizures. Now I have scheduled my second major brain surgery with the hope that I can achieve full seizure freedom, a goal that is difficult and elusive but my team is confident, within reason, that we can achieve or get close to this goal. I have never been able to fully control my seizures. Despite all this, I went to college, studied in Ireland, backpacked through Europe and Southeast Asia on my own, held/hold a full-time job, I have lived on my own, I go out with my friends and probably stay out too late. That's my story, I hope that some way, some how it helps someone out there.