MY FUN TIMES WITH EPILEPSY

There isn't anything special about me. I'm one of three million Americans that have epilepsy. I was diagnosed in college and that wasn't fun. I went to the wrong type of doctor, a neurologist and not an epileptologist, who put me on two different medications. I finally found the right doctors. I learned a lot about the brain and the Central Nervous System. I was a Bio major, so I had an interest in how the body worked; however, I never imagined that I would be "the patient". But I am and always will be, despite being told by my first neurologist that I would grow out of it! I thought he was the one with a neurological disorder after he said that to me. I was skeptical of his prognosis and was correct. I didn't want to be, but I just knew. I've spoken with dozens of people with epilepsy or their family members. What I hear the most is, "the doctor said he/she/they will grow out of it."
After graduation I eventually worked as an IT systems engineer in NYC. It was a stressful job, but I never used to get stressed out. It was the little things that affected me- loud, crowded areas give me migraines, not remembering names of people, wearing my sunglasses to the movies and TV shows I had previously seen but forgot I had watched.  When I don't remember I tell myself "Everything is new and exciting." My new hobby is writing about my epilepsy journey. There wasn't anything on-line about epilepsy and I feel like it's my destiny to give back to the people like me who thought they were alone living with epilepsy. Then I had brain surgery. Most patients have a two-stage craniotomy, and they have a reduction in seizures or never have another seizure. I joke that I am 'Murphy's Law' because I needed a three-stage craniotomy. A year after that I needed a cranioplasty. My skull never fused back the way it was supposed to, so I needed a partial skull replacement. After four years of migraines my neurosurgeon took skull x-rays. He noticed that I had a screw loose, but when he opened up my head it wasn't a screw that was my problem. The methyl methacrylate, a polymer that is often used to hold the titanium skull in place, had rippled. They "sanded" my plastic, titanium skull to smooth out the ridges and I went home the same day. There are things that will trigger my seizures, and I avoid them. 
It's not the worst thing in the world to have epilepsy. Despite missing part of the right side of my temporal lobe, hippocampus and amygdala I live a life that I can be happy and proud of not because I'm a hero. It's because I choose to be happy. We all have to make that choice every day. 

THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT!