Epilepsy affects people of all ages. It’s the fourth most common neurological disorder. But doctors say there are more and more ways to become seizure-free if medicine doesn’t work.
Even though being sandwiched between two full-time jobs, Roni-Kay Lopez carves out time for her “Seize the Moment” epilepsy charity.
“If I can get through this after a life-long battle, how can we help others get the opportunity,” Lopez said.
She was having so many seizures as a little girl that doctors didn’t think she’d make it to sixteen.
“I was in a zoo with my family, and I had 108 in one day,” Lopez said.
“Surgery for epilepsy is not very common. Epilepsy is 1% of the population. It’s a large population and about a third of those are difficult to control with medications and those are the ones for which we look at the possibility of surgery,” said Dr. Selim Benbadis, neurologist at USF Health says.
Benbadis uses images to find the focus of the seizures.
“In patients in whom we can identify focus precisely and is in a safe place to take it out to resect it, epilepsy surgery is very successful,” Benbadis said.
But he said if surgery isn’t an option and medication doesn’t work, there’s neurostimulation.
“Where instead of taking out a part of the brain we stimulate that part or stimulate the entire brain to lessen seizures,” Benbadis said.
Surgery worked for Lopez and now, “I never would have thought I could tell somebody I’ve been seizure-free let alone medication-free,” Lopez said with a smile.
That’s why Lopez is charging on to spread her charity’s message: Seize the Moment.
Lopez said she inherited the epilepsy gene from her great-grandmother on her father’s side. Her charity, Seize the Moment, has given $25,000 for research and patient care so far.