Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Carol Ulloa, epileptologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.
- With seizures, there's an involuntary communication of the nerve cells that are hyperactive and that can cause a variety of symptoms. Epilepsy is essentially someone that has seizures.
- It can be genetic. Other times it's just within that individual's genetic makeup and it's not necessarily that they have a sibling or a parent with epilepsy. Other causes are issues with the brain forming in the womb, stroke, traumatic brain injury, or a brain infection.
- I first met Alex eight years ago. He had previous treatments that helped his seizures and reduced them from every day to a few times per week, but we felt we could do more to help.
- A responsive neurostimulator (RNS) device was placed into his brain and it has helped reduce his seizures to two to five seizures per year.
- The favorite part of my job is seeing people live their lives to the fullest.
Alex Crawford, living with epilepsy
- He doesn’t know when seizures are going to happen.
- Living with seizures has been very difficult because of the restrictions around what he can do.
- With this new treatment, he is able to attend camps and does not need to be with someone all the time.
Gina Crawford, Alex’s mom
- Because Alex is also autistic, it is more difficult to get some information from him.
- It involves re-structuring some tests because his brain works a little differently.
- He has had seizures from his time as a baby all the way up to today in his 30s.
- It’s been a joy watching Alex get to do fun things and be joyful and not worry about seizures ruining it.
Dr. Jennifer Cheng, neurosurgeon, The University of Kansas Health System
- The RNS reads the brain activity and reacts to it when it senses a seizure by sending an electrical stimulation to stop that seizure.
- It involves re-structuring some tests because his brain works a little differently.
- He has had seizures from his time as a baby all the way up today at age 30.
- Epilepsy can be treated. It’s good to seek care with a comprehensive epilepsy program to look for the right types of treatments.
Friday, Nov. 10 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Hear more about the power of second opinions from a patient who was diagnosed with a sinus infection, but ended up getting a second opinion and was admitted to the hospital for chemo treatment.
ATTENTION MEDIA: Please note access is with Microsoft Teams:
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 235 659 792 451
Passcode: 6CSfGE
Download Teams | Join on the web
Or call in (audio only)
+1 913-318-8863,566341546# United States, Kansas City
TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI
Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital
YouTube.com/kuhospital
Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.