Preview: Fighting for a Cure
October 23, 2009 3:28 PM
More Americans are suffering from epilepsy than Parkinson's, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis combined. Katie Couric reports on a disease that may not be getting the attention it deserves.
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I had brain surgery in 1989 in at the University of Minnesota, and was seizure free for 13 years, 9 of those years with no drugs, but they started up again in 2002, when I was driving down Devon Avenue with my girlfriend Virginia. I lost 2 jobs in Chicago, and was forced to move to California, by my brothers if I wanted disability.
The doctor at Abbott Northwestern hospital asked my mother, "if someone struck her, when she was pregnant with me? She said "no," but my brother John was up there with us and said, "our father came home drunk, struck her, and threw her down the stairs, kicked her in the stomach," but she denied it. She died 3 months after my surgery, and the doctors said, "if I didn't have one then, I'll probley never have one. But like I said before, I had one 13 years later, while driving.
I was also thrown out of a apartment in Chicago for having that one, and the landlady said, I lied to her, telling her, I'm done with those things. I lived in my friends basement, had a few, and he told my sister, he wanted me out of there, because I scared his mother when I had one walking around outside with no clothes on. My brother Jeff got a lawyer who specializes in Disability cases, went infront of the judge, and she ordered me to California, and here I am now, which I really don't like.
Virgina is bugging me to come back, but if I do, one of my seizures meds isn't covered there, so it will be over $300.00 for it. She doesn't want to come here because it is so exspensive for apartments here, and she can't afford it.
I've been seizure-free for ten years now, but I'm always scared of suffering a breakthrough - where I'll be and if I'll survive. I never got a straight answer as to whether epilepsy could be inherited, so I never had kids. After 37 years there is little change in the landscape, and no end to the crushing side effects of successful treatment.
Thank you for helping inform the public. And thank the Axelrods and the many like them for all the work they do.
Bill
Hollywood
It is time for the stigma of epilepsy to be stopped. Your show is an assistance in helping this.
People with epilepsy need a voice in prime time and we thank you for providing this!
GM
I found out I had epilepsy at the age of 17. It not only destroyed me pysically but also mentally. I ended up losing my boyfriend, my job & my social life. It does cause alot depression, but I'm trying to battle on.