As most of you know I was diagnosed with Epilepsy, Seizures at the age of 6 due to a high fever. I never really quite understood why it had to be me. I started going to Children's Hospital in Oakland where they performed a bunch of brain scans on me to figure out the underlying cause behind these seizures I was having, including the most painful procedure that no one should ever have to endure. The Doctors found scar tissue in the left lobe of my brain which they found was triggering seizures. I was seeing a neurologist at Children's Hospital in Oakland until I was 12. After that, they sent me to Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California where I underwent brain surgery for the first time at age 15. I remained seizure free for 5 years and slowly I started having Petite mall seizures again. Within that time I had just turned 21 and went through a dark time in my life. Eventually when I decided to get sober 4 years ago I noticed a change. I started having seizures more and more no matter what I did. The two-four hours of sleep would definitely result in a seizure the next day. I took a little time off work to get my health back on track and went back to my dr. at Stanford where I was then introduced to the head of neurology. I underwent my second brain surgery on June 8th 2017. I was more excited going into brain surgery thinking of the outcome it would have and how it would change my life forever. Well, with that said I was in the hospital for two days and out and about two days later. I told my Doctor I had to be out of the hospital to make it to the Golden State Warriors Parade. Today I remain hopeful and pray everyday to never have to go through the expierence of having another seizure. If you suffer from epilepsy, Seizures or know someone that does, please reach out to me and I can give you some advice or a possible phone number of the Doctors that helped me.
-Alexa Stringer