![]() “One wouldn’t realize the extent of his condition by merely looking at him or speaking to him,” says Dr. Marissa Di Giovine, MD, AJ’s neurologist and Director of CHOP’s Responsive Neurostimulation Clinic, and other members of his care team were shocked that AJ had lived so long without having a seizure and at how functional he was. Diagnostic tests determined that part of AJ’s brain hadn’t developed correctly from birth. Teri reached out to the program coordinator and made an appointment for AJ to undergo a comprehensive evaluation. The program is an accredited level 4 epilepsy center that specializes in the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents with seizures and epilepsy. Seeking specialized epilepsy careĪJ’s mom, Teri, did some research online and came across the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), which is about a 1½ hour from Phillipsburg. Some people’s auras take the form of flashing lights or zigzag lines in AJ’s case, it was an unusual sensation. His only warning that a seizure was coming was an aura about 10 seconds in advance. Afterward, he would be wiped out, feel ill and sleep for hours. For the longer seizures, AJ would black out and have no memory of the episode. They came in one of two forms: either a mild seizure that lasted about 45 seconds and that AJ recovered from quickly, or a harsher, convulsive seizure that lasted two to three minutes and involved his whole body. When the family got back to their home in Phillipsburg, NJ, they took AJ to a nearby neurologist who prescribed a second medication.Įven with two medications, the seizures continued. His parents took him to a physician in Boise who diagnosed AJ with epilepsy and prescribed him anti-seizure medication. When he got to the end of the walkway, he dropped his bags, fell to the ground and had a seizure his left arm hovered over his chest and he stared blankly into the distance. He was on a moving walkway in the Salt Lake City airport and started to have an aura. AJ's first seizure happened on a family trip to Boise, Idaho. AJ, who was diagnosed with epilepsy at 14, at his high school graduation. ![]()
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