Jessica, Age 38, Everton, Missouri

I’m 38. I was working part-time and going to school full time. I was in school to be a respiratory therapist. I started having migraine headaches that I had never had before. The end of 2017 I was at my clinical shift at a hospital when I collapsed in a patient’s room having a seizure. I have no memory or knowledge of this, only what I’ve been told. It took several days before being admitted to the hospital. They wouldn’t admit me until I had 3 seizures.

My first diagnosis was Herpes Simplex Encephalitis. Which is rare. That took a long hospitalization. I was in about a month. I was home for 1 week when I had another seizure and was back in the hospital with more problems. They thought it was an auto immune problem. I was home from that hospitalization for a while but having 20 partial seizures a day. I was admitted to the hospital again and sent to a research expert and doctor in St. Louis where I was diagnosed with the NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. I’ve been told I can’t work or drive anymore and I have memory problems and problems with distraction, confusion, vocabulary, bright lights. The list goes on. I’m still trying to get disability. My DNA was taken last week to send off for research to help discover more on NMDA Receptor Encephalitis.