Excellent questions and nothing is uncomfortable I those....

• I have been epileptic for over twenty years now. Even medicated,I have a cluster of seizures approximately once a month at the point in my life. My clusters are approx 6-12 of them over a too day period or so.

  • Generally, my seizures most ppl would say are mild. They are focal point sezirues which make me feel weird (my memory is zapped, word recall is zapped, I taste things and smell things not there, and I have a strange deja Vu feelings), but normally they don't turn into what most ppl think of when you think of someone having a seizure (a grand mal, or the proper term is a general tonic-clonic).

However, when I do have severe seizures they are bad and as I've gotten older they have gotten more and more severe. Last summer was the last time I had a TC seizure and it was so bad it turned into what is called status epilepticus. This means I seized for over 5 minutes straight and they had extreme difficulty stopping it. I was told that I was knocking on heaven's door with that one.

• I don't notice the spike and the spike itself isn't considered a seizure. It is just what generates a seizure normally in a brain. My brain seems to "not fall for it" so to speak most of the time. If my brain fell for it every time, I'd be having some type of seizure approximately every minute!

• yes, I can tell when they are starting. Any epileptic who tells you that they can feel them coming is telling you they can feel that they are having one. Most epileptics call them auras. These auras are seizures thenselves (partials or focal points). My tonic-clonics are always preceded by a partial. So, yes, I can feel them coming on, but what I am feeling is actually a seizure. I count my lucky stars that I can feel them. I couldn't imagine just all of a sudden losing conciousness without warning and waking up postictal (the time after the seizure is done).

• over my twenty+ years of having this disability I have been on dozens of medicines. The problem is that I am what is called medicine resistant. I medicine will probably work initially, but eventually I'll start having breakthrough seizures.

I am a very strong supporter of medical marijuana. In my case since I can feel them happening and since smoking is the fastest route to the brain, before my current job I would carry around a dugout with a cig bat loaded and ready to be smoked. I can smoke it and like a light switch it will turn the seizure around. However, this is not legal where I live (Kentucky), and I risk losing my career every time I use it. If I were having clusters one or two times a year I would just do that as smoking once or twice a year has low risk of being detected on a random test.

But they're getting more and more frequent. Since last summer I've been having clusters once a month and my risk of losing my job in a random test skyrockets. This surgery option is