Jordan’s story of strength and hope:
In 2006, during my 2nd year of college I was diagnosed with epilepsy. It started out as absence seizures, daydreams. Once I knew what was going on it all made sense. How all those years prior in classes I’d miss out on key info. Likely the cause of the absence seizures. The specialist said I’ve likely been experiencing them since I was a child. Specialist also told me how common it actually is. He says about 1 out of every 100 people you walk by on the street have them and may not even know it. After my first MRI they saw what appeared or what I was told, scar tissue on the left side of my brain. Only action taken after was some EEGs and medication. Medication had everything under control, until 2016, ten years later.
I came home after working a night shift on October 9th, 2016, my birthday. Last thing I remember was crawling in bed next to my beautiful wife. Then, I’m being attended to by paramedics. I had no ability to speak and limited mobility. I was eventually able to get clothes on and was assisted onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Once in the ambulance the paramedics told me I had a seizure. This time a generalized tonic-clonic seizure, aka a grand mal seizure. From there on the testing and new medication started. More MRIs and EEGs. This time the tests and scans found an abnormality on my right temporal lobe. Amazing how imaging technology advanced in 10 years.
Next was a psychological test to determine if I’m left or right brain dominant. I’m a lefty apparently. Since the abnormality, or tumor, which they finally started calling it is on the right side surgery became an option. That process took some time, 3 years to be exact. It was classified as an epilepsy surgery and the specialist wanted it done in London, Ontario, where they are primarily done. Well the London Hospital surgeons refused to conduct the surgery. I was told I don’t qualifiy for the surgery until I’m on 3 different types of medication, all of which must be at their optimal dose and all 3 fail to control my seizures. I was only on 2 medications at that time. And they also had a difference of opinion with my specialist as to where the focal point of the seizures was. Even though all evidence points at the tumor, the London surgical team didn’t think so.
Thankfully I have an amazing specialist who made everything come into play and I had my surgery in Hamilton, Ontario. That was April 10th, 2019. The surgery took 5 hours and all has been great as of today, except for some headaches. Only confusion now is the tumor they took out isn’t able to be classified. All they know is it has slow growing cells and it’s benign. So as it stands now I’m being monitored by the Juravinski Cancer Hospital as a precaution. The tests and appointments go on. Without my family and friends I wouldn’t be able to do any of it. They are my strength.
I apologize for the length of my story but if you’ve read it I hope it’s helped. Even if only a little.