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NEUROLOGY
Diagnosed at 12,
brain
tumor and epilepsy
Turning 18 was a milestone for Maria,
but for much more than the obvious reasons. Maria’s recent birthday
marked her passage to adulthood and the beginning of a life without
seizures.
Just as Maria entered adolescence, she
started feeling fatigued frequently. Her parents, Judy and Carlos,
attributed it to normal adolescent hormonal changes. However,
several months later, Maria began to suffer recurrent seizures. A
local neurologist referred her to Texas Children’s Hospital, where
she was diagnosed with
epilepsy.
When tests revealed the presence of a
brain tumor, Maria
underwent radiation therapy. Afterward, she was placed on medication
to control the seizures, but it didn’t stop them. The next three
years were stressful and exhausting for Maria and her family, which
includes four younger sisters and an older brother.
“Maria was having seizures daily,” Judy
says. “There was never a week we didn’t get a call from the school
nurse.”
As a teen, Maria had an even greater
frustration with the seizures. They often occurred at school in
front of her classmates, which she found embarrassing. She was not
able to get her driver’s license, play sports, hold a job or have a
normal social life.
“I was having two or three seizures a
day at school – I’d just fall down in the middle of the hall,” Maria
says. “It was getting hard to be at school, especially with all of
the medication I had to take.”
Maria began to experience overwhelming
exhaustion – a common side effect of the medication. She reduced the
hours spent in class as her level of energy declined and eventually
dropped out of high school and received her Graduate Education
Development (GED) certificate.
Maria’s ongoing seizures steadily
decreased her ability to lead a full life. But an evaluation by
Texas Children’s
Comprehensive Epilepsy Program (CEP) proved to be the turning
point. Dr. Angus A. Wilfong,
neurologist and CEP medical director; Dr. Merrill S. Wise,
medical director of Texas Children’s epilepsy monitoring unit;
Dr. Daniel Yoshor, neurosurgeon; and
Rebecca Schultz, RN, PNP and CEP program coordinator, examined Maria
and encouraged the family to consider surgery.
“Surgery is an option when the source
of the seizures is one specific area of the brain,” Wilfong says.
Fearful of having surgery on her brain,
Maria initially refused. An honest discussion with Wilfong
eventually changed her mind.
“He painted a picture of what life with
seizures might be like for Maria,” Judy says. “She would never be
able to live alone, drive a car or hold a job.”
The CEP team carefully mapped the point
of the seizures’ onset, which they determined to be next to Maria’s
brain tumor. This area was successfully removed without damage to
any of Maria’s brain functions. Since the surgery, Maria has been
free of seizures, with the exception of a couple associated with a
post-operative infection.
Maria recently began an art class to
resume a past hobby, is working part time, and in the fall will
begin studying art and fashion design at a Houston college.
Grateful for the months she has been
seizure free, Maria said she still can’t believe the dramatic change
in her life.
“I couldn’t see myself as ever not
having seizures—it just seemed like something that was part of me,”
Maria said. “Now that I don’t have them anymore, it’s still very
hard to believe this is my life.”
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