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CNI Epilepsy Center
Patient Stories
Testimonials
Michael
Having surgery for my epilepsy was the best decision that I've ever made. Since my surgery I've had no seizures, not even an aura. It's like living again! Everybody says I'm a completely different person from what I was a year ago. There's nothing I can't do for myself now. I'm planning to go back to work soon and if no seizures in a year's time, I can drive again.
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Steven
My life after epilepsy surgery has improved tremendously. The ability to do the one thing in life that I have always wanted to do is now there -- DRIVE. It is nice to be able to be independent. It is also nice not having to worry about the next seizure.
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Linda
I had a right temporal lobectomy which has made me seizure free to this day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the doctor who referred me to CNI. I am currently working a full time and part time job. I have been driving the past six years. I have become very independent and become a new person in more ways than one. Medical technology has come a long way and into the future.
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Emma
Two days after she was born three months prematurely, Emma Short had a stroke. It left some scar tissue on her brain that began causing epileptic seizures when she was ten. Over the next 17 years, Emma's seizures became more frequent and more severe, and eventually leading any kind of normal life was virtually impossible. That's when her Grand Junction neurologist referred her to the CNI Epilepsy Center.
When he first met Emma, Dr. Ron Kramer had a feeling that she might be a candidate for a hemispherectomy, in which half the brain is removed in an effort to cure the seizures. Remarkably, the remaining hemisphere is able to take over the functioning of the whole brain. After weeks of testing and consultation with the CNI epilepsy team, it was determined that she was indeed a candidate.
While it is certainly a dramatic and risky surgery, hemispherectomies are successful nine out of ten times in slowing seizures or curing them altogether. Emma and her family decided that her quality of life had gotten so bad that it was worth the risk.In an eight-hour surgery, the CNI team, led by neurosurgeon Dr. Timothy Fullagar, was able to remove the diseased part of Emma's brain, disconnect the rest of the hemisphere, and leave the motor function on the opposite side of her brain intact.
Today, Emma is seizure free. For the first time, she has a chance to do some of the things she only dreamed about, like getting a driver's license. And she still has her sense of humor. As Emma told the Grand Junction Sentinel, "All they had to do was trash half my brain."
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