Our youngest son, Christian, has had quite a medical journey since birth. He was born in 2006 with hydrocephalus, which required a shunt at 7-weeks old, and a few shunt revision surgeries before he was in kindergarten. Over the years, he has also had 2 strabismus eye surgeries and a VNS implant surgery. In 2025 he had focal resection epilepsy surgery. This was by far our hardest medical decision; we worried about what part of our son we might “lose” by allowing neurosurgeons to remove parts of his brain. However, since the surgery, Christian has been seizure-free. While he remains on medication for now, we feel like our family can move forward into the next chapter of our lives, one that – fingers crossed – will hopefully have little to no seizures.

We wish we had learned about epilepsy surgery options much earlier in our son’s life, closer to when he was diagnosed with epilepsy at age four. Christian’s journey required us to learn a lot about medical vocabulary, procedures, medications, doctors, hospitals, organizations, etc. We are not medical experts, but we have a lot of knowledge and experience in areas that we did not expect, or even want, to learn about. I can assure you that after doing our research and reaching out to the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Alliance, we know we made a wise decision. I want to support other families so they don’t have to navigate this overwhelming process alone.

I live in North Carolina with my husband and 3 sons, 2 cats, and 1 dog.

Languages spoken: English