Key points from today’s guests:

Mallory Contreras, living with epilepsy

• Mallory’s seizures started in the fifth grade and had affected her life throughout, including daily routines like driving and also impacting her professional career.
• Because of her temporal lobe epilepsy, she was having seizures 2-3 times per month.
• Mallory was open to the idea of an RSN stimulator implanted into her brain to help and she has not had a seizure in about a year. It was implanted in 2020.
• She has a totally different life now and is able to be alone and people do not have to worry about her as much.
• Her advice is to learn more about epilepsy and realize that it affects normal people.

Dr. Patrick Landazuri, epileptologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• Epilepsy is a disease where a seizure is the main symptom. There are actually many symptoms of epilepsy, but a seizure is essentially just a misfiring of the brain.
• Medicines are the gold standard treatment for epilepsy and the reason for that is because 70 percent of people who take medicines are seizure free. For those 30 percent who aren't seizure free with medications, we consider surgery.
• Mallory has an RSN implant, which is like a defibrillator for the brain.
• The implant is always reading brain waves, so when those brain waves misfire and turn into a seizure, it sends a jolt of electricity to that specific part of the brain in an attempt to interrupt that abnormal brain electricity.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection & prevention control, The University of Kansas Health System

• The hospital is at 16 active COVID infections.
• Local and national trends are showing an increase in flu cases, so if you haven’t gotten your flu vaccine, now is the time to get it.
• RSV cases are also starting to increase.

Monday, Nov. 20 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. At a certain age, your bones get weaker and for women, menopause can make the weakness even worse. Learn more about protecting your bones in the lower back thanks to new hormone research.

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