Mary's epilepsy journey
Donation protected
3.5 years ago, when my sister Mary was 21, she had a series of sudden, unexplained grand mal seizures that sent her to the ER via ambulance for the weekend. She was put on seizure medication and remained seizure free for the next two years.
In the fall of 2017 Mary began experiencing what we now know to be simple partial seizures in which she remains conscious but becomes completely unfamiliar with her surroundings. Her seizures have increased in frequency and duration and are now "medically refractory" meaning no longer able to be controlled with large doses of seizure medications.
In October of 2018, Mary had a 5 day EEG monitoring study done at the Kaiser neuroscience department in Redwood city. This allowed her neurologist to further study her specific seizures and brain activity. During that stay, we learned that Mary has bi-temporal epilepsy, meaning seizures that originate from not just one side of her brain as they had previously thought, but both sides. We also learned that she is having upwards of ten seizures per day, some of which she isn't even aware of.
Because Mary's seizures have become resistant to the maximum doses of many medications, her best option and what her neurologist recommends is having a device implanted in her brain. The device is an RNS implant called Neuropace and it is the most definitive treatment plan for Mary's type of epilepsy when medication no longer works.
Mary has spent the past six months undergoing tests as part of the approval process for this surgery. Two weeks ago her case was approved by the neuroscience board at Kaiser and we have a surgery date in mid April.
Mary's life has been impacted greatly by her epilepsy. She is unable to work and her license has been suspended until she is seizure free for a period of six months. This surgery, although scary, brings hope for Mary to return to a normal life of a 24 year old.
Mary's surgery and all neurology appointments are located at the Kaiser Neuroscience center in Redwood City which is two hours from home. All donations will be used for travel, co-pays and medication costs that insurance does not cover, in addition to the thousnds of dollars in hospital bills that have accumulated in
the past six months. Our family is so grateful for the support from our friends and community - thank you for being part of Mary's journey to seizure-free life!
For more information on the Neuropace RNS system, click here https://www.neuropace.com/the-rns-system/
In the fall of 2017 Mary began experiencing what we now know to be simple partial seizures in which she remains conscious but becomes completely unfamiliar with her surroundings. Her seizures have increased in frequency and duration and are now "medically refractory" meaning no longer able to be controlled with large doses of seizure medications.
In October of 2018, Mary had a 5 day EEG monitoring study done at the Kaiser neuroscience department in Redwood city. This allowed her neurologist to further study her specific seizures and brain activity. During that stay, we learned that Mary has bi-temporal epilepsy, meaning seizures that originate from not just one side of her brain as they had previously thought, but both sides. We also learned that she is having upwards of ten seizures per day, some of which she isn't even aware of.
Because Mary's seizures have become resistant to the maximum doses of many medications, her best option and what her neurologist recommends is having a device implanted in her brain. The device is an RNS implant called Neuropace and it is the most definitive treatment plan for Mary's type of epilepsy when medication no longer works.
Mary has spent the past six months undergoing tests as part of the approval process for this surgery. Two weeks ago her case was approved by the neuroscience board at Kaiser and we have a surgery date in mid April.
Mary's life has been impacted greatly by her epilepsy. She is unable to work and her license has been suspended until she is seizure free for a period of six months. This surgery, although scary, brings hope for Mary to return to a normal life of a 24 year old.
Mary's surgery and all neurology appointments are located at the Kaiser Neuroscience center in Redwood City which is two hours from home. All donations will be used for travel, co-pays and medication costs that insurance does not cover, in addition to the thousnds of dollars in hospital bills that have accumulated in
the past six months. Our family is so grateful for the support from our friends and community - thank you for being part of Mary's journey to seizure-free life!For more information on the Neuropace RNS system, click here https://www.neuropace.com/the-rns-system/
Fundraising team: Katie & Jenny (2)
Katie Ward
Organizer
Healdsburg, CA
Mary Cadd
Beneficiary
Jennifer Cadd
Team member
