This study documents the journey of one intractable Epilepsy patient contemplating the implantation of a Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) device. Intractable, or pharmacoresistant, Epilepsy is Epilepsy that is uncontrolled despite appropriate medical treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AED's). More than 30% of patients continue to have seizures in spite of multiple trials with pharmacologic therapy (Kwan & Brodie 2000).

Scientists had long known that electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in the neck could “flatten out” brain waves, thus possibly decreasing seizure activity, and in 1997, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved VNS Therapy in combination with seizure medication. On the surface, it might appear that the decision would be an easy one, yet past frustrations and the uncertainty of favorable results make this decision one worth studying.