One year ago at this time, Cathleen Townsend was having up to 15 seizures per day. Then she had life-changing surgery last April. She’s not had a seizure since.
The Casselman, Ont. resident says her life has had a “360-degree change” in the past nine months. Being seizure-free has allowed her to go back to work for the first time in a decade. She’s now looking at enrolling in college courses. At 41, Townsend is also planning to get her driver’s licence – a feat she could not accomplish when she was having seizures.
What made a difference was Townsend’s persistence. The physician she saw for several years didn’t think surgery was the right option, and Townsend was only given medications to treat her condition. The medications helped reduce the seizures, but didn’t stop them.
Townsend had been living with epilepsy since she was a 16-year-old Grade 11 student living in Miramichi, N.B. For the next 25 years, seizures were a part of Townsend’s life.
Epilepsy greatly affected her personal life.
“Because of this condition, when I had my youngest son, who is now 14, as of February, doctors told me I was lucky to have him,” Townsend explains. “There were complications during pregnancy and after birth. I had to give up the dream of us having any more children.”
The turning point came when Townsend suffered a seizure at her young son’s birthday party. After a quarter century of living with epilepsy, she had had enough. She got a second opinion from another doctor, who felt Townsend was a good candidate for open-brain surgery.
Townsend was referred to Montreal neurosurgeon Dr. André Olivier who, after examining her, agreed to perform the procedure.
“I thank that man every day,” Townsend says of Olivier.
Before her surgery, Townsend says she was sleeping about 12 hours per day. She was, as she says, “stuck in my home for 10 years.”
Her chronic fatigue has gone away since the surgery.
“I’m like the Energizer bunny today,” Townsend says. “I am 41 years old and I feel like I’m 20 all over again. I’m so full of energy. … The life I have now is amazing. I am so blessed.”
But it’s not just the surgery that has made a difference, Townsend notes. Her husband, Benjamin, has been supportive of her throughout their marriage. That support, she says, gone a long way in helping her overcome her challenges.
Asked if she has any advice for people living with epilepsy who think surgery might be a good option for them, Townsend suggests they become a self-advocate.
“Anyone who is not getting anywhere with their neurologist, go get a second opinion,” she says. “I feel it is extremely important for all to speak up and raise their voices on all issues (surrounding epilepsy).”
Writer: Deron Hamel
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