Treatment helping Central Valley native work through epilepsy

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- For his whole life, Jose Meza learned to live with epilepsy.

"I couldn't possibly do everything that other kids or other people had the freedom to do," he said. "I was more limited and a little more guarded as a little kid."

Doing everyday tasks like going to the store or mowing the lawn was not just hard, but also scary. Meza feared that a seizure could happen at any moment.

"One thing about having epilepsy is you never know when it's going to hit," he said. "It could hit at any time."

Meza tells Action News some medications helped get his epilepsy under control but after some time, it stopped working.

That's when he heard about Vagus Nerve Stimulation therapy or VNS, which uses an implantable device to stimulate a nerve on the neck.

"This magnet, I just swipe it along the device," he said. "The device I have is right here and you just swipe it. It sends a pulse to the vagus nerve, and that's the wire connected to my vocal cords."

Meza went on VNS back in 2019.

Since getting on the treatment, he's found more peace of mind.

He even took a trip to the East Coast.

"Two years ago, we went to New York," Meza said. "We went to New York for about a week, and it went off with no problems at all."

Now, Meza gets to fully live life with his wife and their two dogs, without worry of another seizure.

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