New procedure helps pastor battle epilepsy

John Paul Meyer is approaching an anniversary of sorts, one year after receiving a "pacemaker for the brain" to help treat the Rocklin man's epilepsy.Meyer, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Rocklin, had been diagnosed at age 53 with epilepsy.Immediately before being diagnosed, the last thing he remembered was having a difficult time reading labels in the grocery store. The next thing he knew, after being unconscious 35 minutes, he was soaked in his own blood and being loaded into an ambulance - the result of his first grand mal seizure."It was Good Friday in 1999," he said. "I banged my head against the floor. I went through the whole Easter weekend without remembering much of anything. The next vivid memory I have was being at the dinner table with my wife's family."Then on April 18, 2005, Meyer underwent surgery to implant vagus nerve stimulation or VNS Therapy.Tania Stockbridge of Schwartz Communications explains that VNS is an adjunctive therapy that helps reduce the frequency of seizures. It is often referred to as a "pacemaker for the brain" because it delivers intermittent doses of electrical stimulation to the left vagus nerve in the neck from a small pulse generator implanted in the left chest.According to the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site, epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures caused by electrical abnormalities in the brain. Seizures are often referred to as electrical storms in the brain. Physicians believe VNS Therapy can help to short circuit these electrical storms.Dr. Theodore Goodman with Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento explained that the device itself is silver dollar-sized, placed under the skin of the chest along with wires that wind around the vagus nerve. Like a pacemaker, the VNS implant has a battery that can last for several years, while the device pulses for about 30 seconds of every five minutes.Though he did not treat Meyers, Goodman said the surgical risk of this procedure is extremely low and most patients return home the next day. The relatively new treatment was recently also approved to treat depression.After Meyer was diagnosed he realized he wouldn't be able to function full-time as pastor anymore. He was told to cut back on all of his activities since stress and fatigue bring on the seizures."My doctor said, 'You're not going to ski, ride your bike or drive until we do some tests' It was the first time I'd ever had a seizure and the first I'd heard about having epilepsy," Meyer said. "It was very difficult leading services. When I would have a seizure I stopped speaking, then continue from the point where I left off when it was over."Pam Boehle-Silva served as parish nurse and worked four hours a week."Because of his condition my hours were increased to 20 a week," she said. "I did a lot of the things he normally would do like visitation to help relieve some of his tasks."Meyer's wife Barbara said she had never noticed any seizure activity, or any of the symptoms like tremors, slurred speech or stumbling."When I got a call from the hospital to come pick up my husband because he had taken a fall in the store, I knew something was wrong," she said. "I got scared."Her fears have been relieved since Meyer had the VNS surgery. The only physical effect he suffered was speaking, since the wire placed in his neck rubbed against his vocal chord. But his wife says she can hear a marked improvement when he reads or sings.Senior Pastor Jeff Jordan came on staff full-time after Meyer was diagnosed and told to take it easy. Meyer, the founding missionary of the parish, is now co-pastoring."He was frightened and frustrated because he couldn't do what he had done before, but he never stopped working," Jordan said. "It's not his way. He was cheating, almost working full-time." Meyer said working helped him feel better.According to Boehle-Silva, not working can cause more stress to some people than being active. She said Meyer is such a person."He is a very brilliant, capable person who accomplishes more in a day than most people do in a week. His normal is not our normal." According to the Epilepsy Foundation of America approximately 2.5 million Americans have epilepsy. Approximately 181,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed annually.Since beginning VNS therapy Meyer has not had a seizure in 11 months. Looking back nearly a year after the surgery, Meyer said he only wishes he'd had the operation earlier. He said once the device was turned on, his positive results were instant."I delayed the decision for about six months because I didn't want to go through the probable side effects," he said, noting that his voice can be affected by the device's pulse. "Since I speak for a living, I didn't want to chance what that would be like. ... But now it's hard to remember what this was like before."