Collaboration is Key

Today is our 3rd Annual International Women With Epilepsy Day!  WOW, this has been an AMAZING journey to get us here!  As I sit here thinking about what brought us to this day, I think of all the people that have worked together to change the lives of millions of women and girls living with epilepsy.  It all started years ago before My Epilepsy Story (MES) was even an idea or dream… It all started in a neurologist’s office in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  A woman living with epilepsy searching for help for her young son that was not developing on schedule and asking for help from her neurologist.  That moment led to answers from other medical specialists like the pediatrician, nurse, nurse practitioner, primary care, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, and so on.  The story doesn’t end there, you see then it goes to the National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C. to the American Epilepsy Society annual meeting in Baltimore then Emory University in Atlanta then to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York then to the CDC in Atlanta then to back to another American Epilepsy Society meeting then all across the globe in places like India, Sweden, Australia, and Ireland to name a few.  Collaboration is what brought us to this day.  Collaboration with a patient and collaborating to bring about change in the life of a woman living with epilepsy and the life of a little boy that had been greatly impacted by the anti-seizure medication his mother took while pregnant with him.

“Collaboration is key to having successful outcomes in the lives of women and girls living with epilepsy.  It is not just seizures that impact these females each day, it is the things that they fear, comorbidities, and so many other aspects of living with epilepsy that are not seen.  We have to collaborate across all specialties, institutions, and countries to change the lives of these females.”  ~Brandy McFadden

So today when I look around at all the people that are playing a part to ‘Bridge the Gap’ in the lives of women and girls living with epilepsy, I say THANK YOU!  I look around the world at all the females living with epilepsy and say “Today is your day!  We are here to COLLABORATE with you and EMPOWER you EVERYDAY!”

XOXO,

Brandy