Mikayla ‘Mickie’ was born on October 26, 2011. She was three months old when she had her first seizure. By nine months old, she had failed over eight anti-seizure medications and was diagnosed with Intractable Epilepsy and Infantile Spasms. Each month that passed, she fell further and further behind her peers in development. I knew deep down in my soul something was gravely wrong. In the war that we were waging, I wondered if we would ever get answers. When we met Dr. Mary Zupanc, a Pediatric Epileptologist at CHOC Children’s Hospital of Orange County everything shifted. She gave us the answers we had been seeking, even the ones we didn’t want to hear. The day before Mickie’s first birthday she had brain surgery to remove the Parietal, Occipital and Temporal lobes of the left hemisphere of her brain in order to combat the seizures. The goal was to preserve the quality of her life, knowing she would never be ‘normal’. She is now a sassy ten-year-old fashionista and is seizure free. She still takes anti-seizure medication daily. Mickie goes to dance class, takes voice and piano lessons, and loves swim class. Mickie is the definition of a miracle and we want to create more success stories and miracles like Mickie.
