For 45 years Rick coped with his epilepsy. As a young man he experienced undiagnosed “spells,” sensations of muscle tension and déjà vu. Later, as a theme park project manager who traveled the world, he suffered his first “grand mal,” or tonic clonic, seizure.

An MRI at a hospital in Australia revealed a small tumor, which they declared inoperable, and which led to a diagnosis of epilepsy. Rick took medications, functioned at an unusually high level during his seizures, and flourished in his career.

Then came the seizure that changed everything.

Driving in complete silence, Rick turned right off a highway exit ramp from the far left lane, drove half a mile down the road, pulled into a parking lot, and never remembered any of it. Shocked, Rick and his wife went home, searched the Internet for “epilepsy” and “Cincinnati,” and found the UC Epilepsy Center. He made an appointment and, for the first time, came under the care of highly trained specialists at a comprehensive epilepsy center. “They hooked me up to 25 wires and a long tether in the epilepsy monitoring unit,” Rick said.

The doctors stopped Rick’s medications and assessed the dozen seizures he had during the next 48 hours. Further testing with functional MRI confirmed that the source of Rick’s seizures, the “inoperable” tumor, was not close to any of his control centers for language, movement, or memory and therefore could be safely removed.

After surgery, Rick was able to cut his medication in half. He returned to his normal, frenetic workload, and then retired to the good life. Seizure-free, Rick noted wryly that he has been busy doing home repairs “that I wasn’t interested in when I was on large amounts of medication.”