EPILEPSY YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Helping To Improve the Life’s of Others
EPILEPSY
A Dream Is Just a Dream
A Goal
Is a Dream with a Plan to Accomplish and Achieve That Dream
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Stacey Chillemi
Born in New York and raised in Matawan, New Jersey, Stacey Chillemi had spent her early trying to cope with her epilepsy disorder.
At the age of five, Stacey’s parents heard a funny noise from the other room, they went to check to make sure everything was all right just as any parent would do and found her in a grand mal seizure. Her lips were turning blue, her eyes rolled back and her entire body was shaking. Stunned, full of fright and devastation they rushed to call emergency (911) and had rushed Stacey to the nearest hospital for medical attention. She was diagnosed with (encephalitis) a virus that had traveled to her brain causing her to go into a coma for four days. However, the doctors did not give up hope, but their prognosis was not positive either. They thought that when she did come out of the coma that she was probably going to have some degree of brain damage and there was a very good chance that she was going to be paraplegic.
Her parents did not give up. They sat by her bedside with hope in their heart and prayed knowing in their hearts that everything happens for a reason and that there was reason for her being on this earth. On the fourth day, her father was praying by her bedside, as she looked up he was stunned to find her eyes wide open and the first thing out of her mouth was “Can I have McDonalds fries?”
The doctors were flabbergasted. Stacey had no brain damage, She was not paraplegic either, but when the virus (encephalitis) had traveled through her brain, it had caused scar tissue damage, which left her with epilepsy. A disorder, which she lives with every day of her life.
Stacey did not give up. She left Matawan, New Jersey in 1992 to attend Richard Stockton College in Pomona, New Jersey. She studied business, marketing, and advertising, as a student at the College. However, she could not escape the allure of writing and quickly began studying to become a writer. She began by reading every chance she had. From health & fitness, self-improvement, alternative medicine to inspirational books, Stacey’s love motivation to helping others was uncontrollable. Stacey wrote her first article for the Epilepsy Foundation of America and received hundreds of letters in response to the article. Once she began writing, she never stopped.
Stacey Chillemi wrote her first book after she graduated college. She decided to help others through her writing; she studied people, and listened to their stories. “I became a student of life”, she recalls. A year later, Stacey married a doctor and planted her roots in New Jersey. Stacey then began writing books and opened up her own freelance writing business. Her first piece was published in Epilepsy Foundation Magazine in 1994.
Her first book, Epilepsy You’re Not Alone, received wide acclaim and earned Stacey several prestigious awards. Since that time, Stacey has penned over a dozen books and ebooks.
Stacey Chillemi a mother of three, a wife and writer. Her journey and reason for being is defined each day by the happiness in her children’s eyes and the people with epilepsy she has helped through her writing. “Through this experience with epilepsy I have learned to accept my limitations and to change the way I look at things. Through my writing I am able to help others and just knowing I’ve helped is enough of a reward,” said Chillemi.- Jenna Martin/EpilepsyUSA
