Back toListen to Jack detail his experience living with epilepsy while seeking treatment.
Transcript
Getting diagnosed in a timely and accurate manner is everything, is everything. [INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC]
In Afghanistan in 2010, 29 of us went to reinforce other Marines
in their combat operations. And we came back, and four of us started having seizures.
I was diagnosed in 2011. And I was diagnosed with generalized seizure disorder.
Many, many treatments later, I was correctly diagnosed, in 2022, with refractory post-traumatic
epilepsy. Without receiving that for 12 years, there was a tremendous amount of time, treatment plans,
medications that I went through. A seizure is like a lightning bolt hitting a tree.
So a timely and accurate diagnosis basically gets you the opportunity for that tree
to continue to grow at a faster rate than it is getting struck by lightning. Once I was diagnosed in 2022 with that refractory
drug-resistant post-traumatic epilepsy, it was a relief to me. I was like, boom.
Like, we got it. We know what we're fighting now. This whole medical situation, it's
gotten me to the highest highs and the lowest lows. And I'm still here.
And I'm still in the fight. And I'm never going to get out of it. But I want to be here.
I'm such a huge advocate. And I'm so set on making my impact within funding,
within research. The most amazing part of epilepsy, of PTE,
is the opportunity to serve again. [AUDIO LOGO]
