COLUMBUS, Ohio — Seizures have been a part of Callie Carter’s life since she reached the age of 12.
But for nearly a quarter century, she didn’t know that’s what they were.
“I actually started having what I thought were episodes of anxiety. I had been misdiagnosed since I was 12 years old and I had had these episodes every month. Here I was actually having small seizures and didn’t know,” said Carter, a nurse and brain surgery survivor.
While the seizures made life difficult, Carter powered through, even becoming a nurse in her mid 20s. But as she moved into her mid-30s, the problem started getting worse. She began suffering multiple seizures a day, and eventually one bigger than she ever had before.
“When I was about to have my baby, I then had this big seizure. I was about to leave for work. And all I remember is saying, 'I don’t feel very good.' Then I woke up in the hospital,” said Carter.
At that point in 2019, Carter was diagnosed with epilepsy and her role in the hospital had changed.
“The hardest part was learning how to be the patient and not the nurse anymore. I think giving up that was probably the hardest that I that I had to deal with,” said Carter.
After being diagnosed, Carter turned to a team of doctors at OhioHealth. They determined her seizures were coming from an uncommon spot in her brain and recommended a type of brain surgery called laser ablation.
“This allows us to offer a minimally invasive procedure that has relatively equivalent results in terms of people achieving seizure freedom without subjecting them to all the morbidity associated with like a huge operation on their brain,” said Dr. Girish Hiremath, an OhioHealth neurosurgeon.
The surgery uses a laser to heat and destroy brain tissue that cause seizures. Callie’s surgeon doctor, Girish Hiremath, says this surgery was the least risky way to help her, especially because they had to do it twice.
“The first surgery, you know, was partially successful, but there was still a second sort of part of the seizure network that was still active and was giving her seizures,” said Hiremath.
Her doctor, Jason Bisping, is an adult neurologist and epileptologist. He worked with Carter throughout her journey and still checks on her to this day.
“I would say from the word go, Callie was extremely dedicated. She was laser focused on where we were going with this. And was ready to do whatever it was that we asked her,” said Bisping.
In the wake of the surgery, Carter left her nursing job to focus on her health. But three years later, she says she’s seizure free, living a normal life, and now is a memory care nurse for Alzheimer’s patients in Zanesville.
“Yeah, so it’s a whole new life when people say that they have a second chance at life. This is what they mean,” said Carter.