MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner signs off

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

For most of the 60,000 Minnesotans with epilepsy, the condition has little effect on their ability to work. Medications control seizures for two-thirds of patients. But even then, the drugs can affect one's mind.

University of Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill 

 due to health concerns. Kill has struggled with epilepsy and a temporary leave of absence from the team in 2013 to deal with seizures.


 
 
Brett Boyum has had epilepsy for eight years. In his spare time, the marketing executive volunteers as board president of the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota.

 
 
Boyum's epilepsy is well controlled with drugs. But he says the medication has eroded his ability to concentrate for long periods.

 
 
"I used to love to sit and read a book for two hours at a time and I'm lucky if I can sit for a half hour and stay focused," he said. "And I've had to learn that when I sense myself wander a little bit I get up and wander around for five minutes and then I can come back and refocus."

 
 
The drugs also make him irritable, and they have other unpleasant side effects.

 
 
"It can make you tired," he said. "But I know that I've had conversations with others [patients] where some of their meds do the exact opposite. It keeps them awake or jittery."


 
 
 
Boyum said there have been times when he's considered not taking his medication, but the fear of another seizure makes him stick with it. 

 that it's not uncommon for patients to decide to back off on their meds.

 
 
Dr. Carl Bazil said epilepsy drugs can cloud one's thinking, especially in combination with other medications. But epileptic seizures can do that too, he said. And they can happen 100 times a day.
 

 
"Sometimes seizures can be subtle and not recognized even by the person having them to the point where they're impairing thinking much or all of the time," he said.

 
 
Bazil, director of the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center in New York, said epilepsy is a complicated condition that has a wide range of effects.

 
 
Stress at work or home can worsen symptoms. So can a lack of sleep or a poor diet. Untreated depression and anxiety often go hand-in-hand with debilitating medical conditions like epilepsy and can cloud thinking as well.

 
 
Bazil said epilepsy may make it more difficult to do some jobs. Sometimes it is necessary, as in Kill's case, to step away from a career to get one's health in order.
 

 
"The good news is that most people with epilepsy are controlled," he said. "And even the ones that are uncontrolled ultimately will get better. But there is a whole range of how long that may take and what they may have to go through."

 
 
Jerry Kill's decision to stop coaching saddens Vicki Kopplin, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. She said she knows how much pressure Kill felt to show others with the condition that it's possible to perform at a high level.
 

 
"The 60,000 people in Minnesota that have epilepsy know exactly what he's going through," she said. "This happens every day to people with epilepsy, that their journey twists and turns and changes. And so I would just want him to know that he has everyone's support."

60,000 Minnesotans know Kill's situation only too well

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox