Weall should understand that an epilepsy diagnosis need not lead our patients togive up hope for a successful life. This patient’s experience confirms that.Half of all the three million Americans with epilepsy exhibit complete ornearly complete control of their seizures. An epilepsy diagnosis does not necessarilyrestrict your life. Afterall, Chief Justice John Roberts of the United StatesSupreme Court has epilepsy.

My novel, DINGS, includesreassurance of this by the fictitious neurologist in my book to the mother of hernewly diagnosed third grader who was failing school due to unrecognized non-convulsiveepileptic blank-out seizures.

In the October/November2024 issue of Brain&Life, Mary Bolster wrote of a courageous man (page38). Tyler Rogers climbed the tallest mountain in the world, the 29,029 feettall Mount Everest, despite his history of epilepsy. He graduated from highschool in 2013. As a team wrestler he had experienced a severe concussion. Twoweeks later he had his first grand mal seizure. Realization ensued that he hadbeen experiencing auras and sporadic numbness and other symptoms without lossof consciousness. He had never complained of these phenomena until hisconvulsion. His antiseizure medications (ASMs) did not prevent repeatconvulsions and their side effects were unpleasant.

On a subsequent airplane flight,he had a 9-minute generalized seizure. Monitoring with brain-implanted-electrodesthen revealed that he had a lesion in his right temporal lobe. A laser ablationwas utilized to remove the lesion. He had no seizures for the next 18 monthsuntil breakthrough seizures occurred. Another laser ablation was then performed.

Laser ablation is a surgicalprocedure but a less invasive surgery. It uses targeted laser technology todeliver heat to ablate, or destroy, cells responsible for causing seizures. Itis generally considered as another treatment when anti-seizure medications havebeen ineffective in controlling a patient’s seizure frequency. This was thesituation in Tyler’s case. Laser ablation can be particularly promising whenlesions believed to be causing seizures are located deep in the brain, where amore invasive surgical approach would be too high-risk.

Tyler reported that henoticed an immediate improvement in his word recall and cognition. Seizure-freefor the subsequent 18 months until seizures reappeared. He had another laserablation.

A friend who had summittedEverest counseled Tyler that he could do it, too. Months of intensive trainingfor his climb ensued. He advised his sherpa guides on the climb and hisclimbing teammates what to do if he had a convulsion. He didn’t. In March,2023, he successfully reached the summit of Everest. Months later focal simpleseizure recurred with no loss of consciousness. He’s had no more seizures withclose neurological follow-up.

hard-hitting emotional family medical drama, “DINGS, is told from a mother’s point of view.“DINGS” is his first novel. Aside from acclamation on internet bookstoresites, U.S. Report of Books, and the Hollywood Book Review, DINGS has beenadvertised in recent New York Times Book Reviews, the Los Angeles TimesCalendar section and Publishers Weekly. DINGS teaches epilepsy and is now available ineBook, audiobook, soft and hard cover editions.