I had my first seizure when I was 26 years old. It just literally, came out of nowhere.
I was walking the dog and I fell down, and from there, things spiraled downward.
The seizures were so bad and they were so often I couldn't do anything. I fell down all the time.
I couldn't cook for my children, I was basically being taken care of 24/7.
I saw many doctors, did a lot of tests, medications, and the doctors finally decided to send me
to Stanford.
Two-third of our epilepsy patients can be controlled easily with medications. But one
third of patients, unfortunately, suffer from intractable epilepsy, and that means patients
taking more than two or three medications, continue having seizures.
Stanford is excellent place for patients who are suffering from intractable epilepsy. We
collaborate with our colleagues in multiple departments. We try to fuse the clinical and
science parts together. So, with that teamwork, I think we were quite confident that we were
going to be able to help Laura.
When she initially presented her symptoms of leg jerking, it wasn't entirely clear to
anybody what was going on. And, in fact, the recording of the EEG from the scalp, didn't
show anything of interest. Dr. Parvizi and others pursued the strong possibility that
this was epilepsy near the leg control area of her motor cortex.
So for us it was extremely important to do a functional mapping.
Just to give you an idea, if we were five millimeter to one centimeter off,
Laura could never sense her legs.
This required a surgical procedure, itself, to put electrodes over the surface of the
brain.
Once we went in and implanted intracranial electrodes, we discovered the area that
was causing seizures was so close to the areas that control sensation and movement
of her legs.
They explained all the risks to me, everything that could go wrong, and there was a 90 percent
chance I was going to be paralyzed from my hip down. I didn't care. It's better than
having a seizure every other moment of my life.
I remember being wheeled to the prep area, and I remember my mom and I just holding hands
and saying, "This is really happening."
Dr. Yu actually used suction. Basically suctioning the cells that were causing the trouble.
We couldn't take a huge chunk of brain tissue, but cutting the main hub, at least, makes
it easier for us to control her seizures with medications.
I remember waking up from the surgery and someone taking something sharp against my
foot, and said, "Can you feel this?" And I said, "Yes," and they said, "Okay, you're
not paralyzed."
The most that happens to me now is my leg will jerk out, but much less severely than it
used to, and if that's what I have to live with, it's a small tradeoff.
It's been 14 months since I had both of my surgeries and I can function
and I'm back to work within three months.
I've wanted to drive, but I haven't driven in three years, and so, my doctor signed
off on it and I've taken my tests.
I think gaining some independence back will be a big part of my recovery.
I'm grateful every day for the people that made me whole again.