Roxanne submitted her personal epilepsy story to Living Well With Epilepsy to share her own experience.
I am Roxanne Olmstead from Turning Purple for Epilepsy. I am 47 years old and started having seizures when I was 16. It has taken many years to get some control over my seizures but they have never been completely controlled.
When I was in my 20’s I had 19 tonic clonic seizures in 1 hour. I wound up in a coma for two weeks and had to relearn to talk. This was not the first time I stared death in the face.
14 ys ago my doctor put me on Depakote and it has been my saving Grace. The also added Keppra. About 4 yrs ago the doctor took me off Depakote and put me on Lamtical. The doctor decided to make this change because I had gained over 100 pounds.
Just this past September I had a Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) implanted. The side effects were so bad they had to turn it down.
I have had many types of seizures and continue to experience short and long term memory loss. Yet, I refuse to let epilepsy have a hold on me.
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