Ask any 16 year old what they look forward to the most and it’s no contest…getting their driver’s license. But imagine the disappointment of going through driver’s education only to be told you can’t drive because you’re having seizures. That’s what happened to Roxane Duncan of Lawrence, Kansas 35 years ago. She’s been living with epilepsy and the seizures for all these years, taking as many as 31 different pills a day to treat it…and still not eliminating the seizures.

            A year ago, she came to The University of Kansas Hospital, and tests showed she was a perfect candidate for a procedure called right anterior temporal lobectomy, in which the area of the brain where the seizures occur is safely removed. Almost immediately, the seizures stopped

            One year later, Roxane remains seizure-free, and she recently came to the doctor to hear the news she’s waited half a lifetime to hear…she was cleared to get her driver’s license. She wasted no time in going to the DMV and proudly showed off her new ticket to freedom.

            The video shows the visit in which the doctor gives Roxane the great news, followed by an interview with Roxane. In the raw interview, she talks about what it was like finding out at 16 that she couldn’t drive, remembering the day she was told she had epilepsy, what it’s been like living with it for 35 years and the experiences she went through with other doctors. She also talks about what happened when doctors at The University of Kansas Hospital told her about the procedure to eliminate her seizures and what the procedure was like.

            Dr. Carol Ulloa, a neurologist at The University of Kansas Hospital, describes the joy she felt in giving Roxane the great news about being able to drive, why having seizures is often a misunderstood disorder, and the many options for treating seizures.

            Tim Romine is Roxane’s fiancé, and in the video he describes what it’s like now that she’s seizure-free.