Andrew Hammonds

Tennessee, USA

To start off my name is Andrew Hammonds. I have epilepsy. I have been dealing with grand mal seizures since I was 18 years old, I’m 25 now. I have woken up in hospitals many times, from Ft. Lauderdale, FL all the way up to Sevierville, TN.

I went to a hospital for a minor tooth problem and they put me on some type of pain pill that conflicted with my seizure medication (keppra) generic for levetiracetam. I am on 750mg 2 times a day. The hospital knew that I took epilepsy medicine. After they knew they messed up they sent me to the UT hospital, where I found out the pain pills caused my brain to hemorrhage. The doctor said I had a lot of subsiding blood in the front of my brain. Ok now that’s a lot to take in so far, and I only mention that hospital visit because after that I went to the best neurologist in or around Knoxville TN area. He had some ideas for things I could do to help my epilepsy, the main stuff involved getting plenty of sleep, eating good, and working my brain by exercise. We talked about stuff I like to do in that sense, like skateboarding, and I mentioned spinning fire. He said he was totally in support of fire spinning because of the benefits from exercise and the concentration, because it works the brain.

After that he got to a level I couldn’t understand, he told me to see a psychiatrist. At this time I was thinking wow, is this guy kidding? How can talking to someone about my epilepsy help my epilepsy? But about three weeks ago I was watching Ted TV on YouTube (it’s got everything + wild video speeches). I found a video which explains to me what my doctor wanted me to look into, I was just too hard headed at the time. The video is about brain imaging+psychology = they learn how your brain functions while communicating (video below).

I believe this video is going to change my life, and I’m going to try to look into it more and maybe one day I can travel the world and teach people the benefits of poi. With my meds comes crazy side effects and my mind is not clear unless I’m doing stuff I love like poi or skateboarding. It helps calm me down and block my mind from steadily wandering. The brain needs exercise in the mental sense, just like how people work out their muscles. It’s definitely good to keep learning new stuff and always think positive. I hope you understand my story and thank you all.