Kevin's story
Nine years, three surgeries, one marathon
In 1998, at eight years old, I was diagnosed with cerebral hemiatrophy — one half of my brain measurably smaller than the other. That asymmetry set the stage for a seizure focus that medication alone could never fully quiet. What followed was a decade of escalating treatment: a 2017 left temporal lobectomy, a 2019 vagus nerve stimulator, and a 2022 deep brain stimulation implant — until a specific DBS setting finally held in March 2026. Along the way: 154 pounds lost, a mindset rebuilt, and a marathon on the calendar for CURE Epilepsy.
Pick a chapter below, or follow the full timeline straight through.
Diagnosis & early history
Cerebral hemiatrophy at age 8, the massive seizure that followed, years of unrecognized focal aware seizures, and the breakthrough tonic-clonic seizures that led to UCLA.
Read the chapter → 02 · My JourneyTimeline & milestones
The whole arc, 1998 to 2027, as a single expandable timeline — diagnosis, surgeries, the golden setting, and the marathon ahead.
See the timeline → 03 · My JourneySurgeries, VNS & DBS
The 2017 lobectomy, the 2019 VNS, the 2022 DBS implant, and the golden setting that held in 2026.
Read the chapter → 04 · My JourneyInteractive seizure & neuron simulations
A small cortical network you can push into a spreading seizure, and a real Hodgkin-Huxley neuron you can fire yourself — live, numerically-simulated, not canned animations.
Try the simulations →Curious about the medical side? Switch to dark mode to see the surgery photos throughout this story — blurred by default, tap any photo to reveal it.