7. EPILEPSY: WHEN NEURONS MISFIRE By Dale Short For Karen, it begins with the sensation of a roller-coaster ride--her stomach seeming to rise suddenly into her throat as if she's on a steep downhill run, even though she's standing on a level sidewalk at the time. For Duane, it starts with the overpowering scent of dry leaves burning in autumn, even if he's walking through a green field on a warm spring day. But what comes next for both of them, and for the 40 million other people worldwide who suffer from the disorder, is dramatically similar: twitching or convulsions, the sense of being dissociated from their surroundings, and perhaps a blackout that can last seconds or minutes--the hallmarks of an epileptic seizure. The tiny electrical glitches in the brain that cause epilepsy can have devastating effects on patients' lives. Even as recently as the 1950s, more than a dozen states in this country still had laws that prevented people with epilepsy from marrying. Up until the 1970s, restaurants and other public enterprises had the right to prevent them from even entering the premises.

8. Though drugs are still one of the most effective means of treating epilepsy, many of them haven't lived up to their earlier promise. Advances in surgical techniques are another promising arena. Neurologist Frank Gilliam, who directs the UAB Epilepsy Center's surgical outcomes program, says that more than 500 patients have undergone surgery at the center, with a success rate that puts UAB among the best in the world. One of the program's many success stories is Duane Campbell of Atlanta, the man who smelled dry leaves from nowhere. He had been diagnosed as having epilepsy 10 years earlier, at the age of 19, when he suffered a major, or grand mal, seizure on Halloween night and ended up at his local emergency department. In the years that followed, Campbell recalls, his physicians "tried about every drug in the book" to reduce his seizures. None of the medications helped, and some actually made his symptoms worse. At one point, he was having as many as 20 episodes a day. "It got to where my whole life was controlled by waiting for a seizure," Campbell says. "I'd wonder, 'Will it happen while I'm going down these stairs? Will it happen while I'm holding my baby?'"

9. By chance, one of his doctors met UAB neurosurgeon Ruben Kuzniecky at a medical seminar and described Campbell's condition. Kuzniecky told him that UAB might be able to help, and Campbell was referred here. Five years after Campbell's surgery, he's still free of seizures. For the past five months, he's been medication-free as well. "My life is nothing like it was 10 years ago," he says now, in an interview at his Georgia home. "I tell people about my condition whenever I can because I'm thinking there may be another Duane Campbell out there, in the same fix I was in, believing that there's no hope. "That's one of my main goals now--letting other epilepsy patients know what's been done for me and the difference it's made in my life." ###

13. Anne Lamott

20. John Grisham

28. William Goyen

41. www.carrolldaleshort.com www.carrolldaleshort.com dale.short@gmail.com