Tiffani Trowbridge

Photo courtesy of the Trowbridge family

When Tiffani Trowbridge, age 29, of New Auburn, Wis., brought home her first paycheck ever this year, it was an amazing accomplishment.

Tiffani, who lives with her parents Jane and Ken Trowbridge, has had epileptic seizures since she was 6 months old. When Tiffani was four years old, the seizures hit every 10 minutes for more than two months.

"Tiffani was never the same after that," says Jane. "We've tried every new medication. They just didn't work for her."

The seizures — and the side effects from the medications — kept getting worse. In 2001, Tiffani was taking more than 20 pills a day. She often slept until noon and had difficulty talking. Her left hand had continuous tremors. "She really had no life," says her mom.

Her local neurologist encouraged the family to talk to Mayo Clinic physicians about surgery to reduce or stop the seizures. Surgery is a viable option when physicians can pinpoint the region of the brain where seizures originate.

Tiffani underwent a comprehensive evaluation at Mayo Clinic. An MRI did not pinpoint the problem area of the brain.

The family agreed to placement of a grid of electrodes onto the surface of Tiffani's brain to help locate the source of her seizures.

The result: her seizures were found to start near 12 of the 64 grid electrodes. Next, her doctors activated the 12 electrodes one-by-one to test what motor functions might be affected if those areas of the brain were removed.

The news was discouraging. "After seeing all the seizure activity, the doctors said there was about a 50-50 chance that the surgery would help," says Jane. Her doctors also determined that Tiffani would lose some motor function in her left hand. However, she had already lost a lot of use of her hand before the surgery due to her nearly continuous seizures.

It was not an easy decision, but the family decided to proceed with surgery. "We felt we had to try something," says Jane.

There were complications. The grid had to be removed because it caused Tiffani's brain to swell. After the swelling subsided, Tiffani underwent the surgery to remove the source of her seizures, the third surgery on her brain in six days.

A year later, memories of that scary time are fading a bit. And the results continue to delight Tiffani and her family. Tiffani is alert, talking a lot more than she did before surgery, and has regained some use of her left hand. And best of all, the seizures have stopped.

She has been helping at her cousin's child care business, has tackled a dishwashing job and is looking for a long-term position.

"To have her this much better is still hard to believe," say Jane. "We believe we had a miracle."