After a year of staying home, 2021 felt like the perfect time to get together. In March, EFCST hosted our first ever Youth Retreat for young adults with epilepsy — we wanted to bring together friends for some fun and respite after a long year of social distancing. Participants made new memories while enjoying four days and three nights in the...
By Monica Santellana Diagnosis My name is Monica and I started having seizures when I was ten years old. I am from Friona, Texas, a very small town in the Texas Panhandle. I am the only one in my family of four that has seizures. Despite taking a wide variety of medications, trying special diets, and having many doctor visits, my seizures continued to...
By Vanessa Camarillo, Abi’s Mom Diagnosis Our princess, Abi, was diagnosed with complex partial seizures at five years old. She was my baby, my little girl, my angel, who was suffering from something beyond our control. We couldn’t fix her pain or her difficult path ahead. We didn’t know what was going on, and we had so many questions. Adapting The day she...
Diagnosis I was first diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 17 years old. I was crossing the street with some friends and had my first Tonic-Clonic seizure. Everyone around me was caught off guard. When I woke up in the hospital, I was told something much worse than I had just been hit by a truck; I was told that I...
Amber Ross is a fundraiser and team captain in our upcoming IM OK Walk to END Epilepsy. In just a few short days, she’s raised more than $2,000! We’re so thankful to have supporters like Amber who have taken their diagnosis and turned it into motivation to do good. Read Amber’s story below and donate to her fundraiser #MomsGotEpilepsy. The...
by Nicholas Vasquez The First Seizure In the Fall of 2011, I began my first semester at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing a B.S. in Biochemistry. In the fall of 2012, I had a seizure. My seizure caused complete memory loss, leaving me to relearn everything. I underwent numerous health procedures while still enrolled at UT Austin. I thought with...
By Richard Pompa Jr. The Accident In April of 1987, at age 15, I was in an accident. While walking to a corner convenience store with two friends, a car struck me going about 60 mph. The impact sucked me into the windshield, head first and threw me 21 feet past the point of impact. I suffered from five skull...
People Who Understand You To be a part of a support group is to be part of a family. Support groups are an opportunity to unite with others who understand where you’re coming from and what you’re going through. Within this family, sometimes you’ll cry together, but at many times, you’ll also laugh together (a lot). With this newly found family,...
By Ashley Colwell The journey to becoming body positive is long and frustrating for anybody, so what does body positivity look like for someone affected by chronic illness? Studies show that up to women are much more critical of their appearance than men. Men tend to be pleased by what they see in a mirror or indifferent. However, chronic illness...
It is not easy to have epilepsy. When George first came to the Epilepsy Foundation Central & South Texas in May of 2016, everyone in his life had given up on him. He was sleeping on sidewalks, he reeked of alcohol and life on the streets, and he was not receiving treatment for his epilepsy. His biggest loss…he had
