Lauren Sheets

My name is Lauren Sheets - I grew up in Indiana but moved to Santa Monica in 2019. I am 26 years old and have been living with epilepsy for about 14 years. Long story short, during those 14 years, there have been and continue to be, a lot of ups and downs, tests, medications, questions, and usually, not a lot of answers.

I have been involved in sports my whole life. Unfortunately, when I was 13 years old, epilepsy put an end to my first love, soccer - at the time my diagnosis was not quite confirmed and I was seeing a doctor who was not a fan of a sport where the chances of me getting hit in the head were rather high. After that, I went on a search for my new sport, there was no way epilepsy was going to completely sideline me. I found tennis and while, not my first choice, I was determined to overcome this new obstacle somehow. I put everything I had into it and fell back in love. I have had seizure after seizure but have continued to become more active over the years.

I have belonged to several boxing gyms over the years (no sparring, just for fitness), all while having both grand mal and “simple” partial seizures. One of my biggest accomplishments was running a marathon in January 2020 - I took my medication on the course to make sure the timing was right. I currently belong to Box n Burn in Santa Monica and workout regularly with a personal trainer. My ultimate goal is to complete an Ironman. I have learned that even though I can still participate in most sports everyone else can, there are times I will have to adjust keep myself healthy and safe, and that is okay.