When I was a toddler, I had my first seizure; it came out of nowhere. My parents didn’t know how/why this happened, so they took me to a pediatric neurologist. A few years later, when I was six years old, I officially diagnosed with the condition. From that moment on, I knew my life would be different from other kids my age. On a good day, I would have 2 -3 grand mal seizures a day; alternatively, on the bad days, I’d have 5-6 seizures a day.
After seeing several pediatric neurologists at Children’s National Medical Center and trying different medications, I found a neurologist that was willing to try something completely new/different: conduct various tests to determine the source of the seizures. Once the studies were complete it was determined that my seizures were located in my right hippocampus. From there, I underwent a few more studies (one of them being funded and conducted by NIH), to determine if my brain would still function normally if the right hippocampus was removed.
In the fall of 2003 (when I was 16), I had brain surgery to remove the source of the seizures. Now, at the age of almost 38, I have been seizure-free for almost 22 years and cannot imagine what my life would be like without the life-altering surgery.