Stacia Kalinoski

I had to laugh. Cardboard boxes scattered across the floor in my new Minneapolis apartment. I unpacked 1 and reached in to find something I hadn't seen since high school...

The first time I slipped my car keys into a drawer for the unforeseeable future was like locking up my independence. I was 25 years old and a car had...

"I think you have temporal lobe epilepsy, and occasionally have secondary generalizations." My very first appointment with a neurologist came a few days after running a marathon in Seattle when...

Seizure education for teachers was something I'd never thought about while growing up because I wasn't diagnosed with epilepsy until my mid-20s. In my small Minnesota town, I'd never witnessed...

As an adult, have you ever asked a loved one what it feels like for them to see you living with the daily struggles of epilepsy? My epilepsy diagnosis came...

My first seizure jolted all 3 of my college roommates out of bed. Yelling, blood, and convulsions shocked and scared them because I had been a healthy college athlete up...

Can you die from epileptic seizures? At first, I didn't want to know the answer, but my very first seizure was an indication of how serious they can be. One...

When I was first diagnosed with epilepsy in 2010, I just assumed epilepsy was a disease. Like cancer or heart disease, it can impact anyone and has multiple causes. But...

The burden of epilepsy is that it follows you wherever you go. Before my brain surgery, it started the moment I woke up each morning. Did I get at least...

Where am I? Why am I on the floor? What day is it? Did I have a seizure? When? Who was there? Returning to reality following a seizure is different...

If there’s one thing people newly diagnosed with epilepsy will find out pretty quickly, it’s that many anticonvulsants, or antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), come with unwanted side effects. For me, it...

The idea seemed so far-flung at first. Brain surgery? What exactly do the surgeons remove? After repeated seizures during my video EEG stay in the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) at...

An unexpected visit to the cardiology floor marked the highlight of my first video EEG testing in Michigan in 2012. What may have appeared to be drop seizures were actually...

"Do you remember a few years ago when we went skiing for the holidays? It was so much fun!!" My stomach sinks whenever a seemingly innocent question regarding past holidays...

The Seattle Rock ’n Roll Marathon led to my epilepsy diagnosis in 2010, but the road to truly understanding my seizures stretched thousands of miles further than the 26.2 miles...

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. This month is an important reminder for me of the 3.4 million people across America who are waking up to take their medication, some fearful...