02 · The Recovery · 2026

I started running

In the early days of the low pulse stimulation, I started walking because I thought it was a good idea to get exercise. I got a 25-pound weight vest to make it harder — haha.

Then came the brilliant idea: run. I hadn’t run since I was a sophomore in high school. So my first run was six miles — which is crazy, because I am partially paralyzed down the right side of my body.

I started running regularly, about five days a week. Then I started to fall. My right foot would drag, catch, and down I’d go. That was a simple fix: I got an AFO — an ankle-foot orthosis that picks my right foot up. I kept running. I recently fell again, so I’ve been on a sabbatical for a few weeks. Rest now. Miles later.

None of this — the walks, the weight vest, the first six miles, the AFO, the road back — happens without the DBS. That low pulse stimulation 24/7 didn’t just quiet the seizures enough for me to move again. It gave me my days back. My depression lifted. Hope stopped feeling like a rumor.

I love my life and I am always so thankful for the life that I was given — for the surgeons and the Medtronic team who kept tuning until we found the setting that held, for a body that still shows up even when the right side fights me, and for every hard mile that proved epilepsy doesn’t get the last word.