I'm sure that many of you who visit this site may wonder about who I am. My name is Jacob Smith; I live in Seattle, Wa. and go to school at Garfield HS. I am enrolled in a class in genetics there, where for my term project I created this site. It has been created as a project for the Washington Biotech Expo, and as an information source and forum for peers. I got much help from my mentor, Dr. Raymond Yeung, and from Vicky Whittemore of the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance, who arranged my mentorship.

My abbreviated TSC chronology

I first had seizures about 2-3 years ago. I didn't even realize that they were seizures because they were partial-complex, so I was conscious, but made me feel like I was staring into space and couldn't stop. I had no problem even walking around. I found out after my mother freaked out when she saw me during a seizure in the car. She ended up calling an ambulance, but the only thing they found when they finally found us was that my blood pressure was slightly higher than normal.

We consulted our physician, and I was referred to the neurologist. At that point we decided it would be best if we were to just let the seizures take their course and see what happened. The seizures continued; we checked with the neurologist again, but took no further action.

I ended up having a full on grand mal seizure in May 2003 while in school. The last thing I remember was eating a bagel in my tech class before I blacked out. The next thing I knew, I was having oxygen tubes shoved into my nose. I was taken to the hospital, where I finally regained full consciousness. I laid there, and after a while they asked if I might want a CAT scan. I didn't really care, but my mom said, why not? I had a cat scan taken of my head, and then found out finally that there were tubers in my brain. I went to see the neurologist again and was given a prescription for a seizure suppressor. I also was scheduled to have my blood drawn and for an MRI. The MRI showed nothing more, but the genetic test, which we had to wait about 6 weeks for, confirmed that I in fact had TSC.

In addition to this, I had 2 sonograms; one of my heart (echocardiogram) and one of my bladder and kidneys (renal sonogram)

My mother has become extra sensitive about it: every time I start to stare into space or have a blank look on my face, she ends up freaking out and has to make sure that I'm not having a seizure. I haven't had a seizure for more than 6 months now that it's February 2004, and I'm very happy about it!

Other things I do in my life

Outside of this mayhem I do many other things. Of course, I go to school every day; I also started to row during the summer season in 2002, and continue to row at Green Lake Crew. It's hard work, and I had a couple of seizures there before I started to take my seizure suppressant. I have yet to get the gold, but I keep working on it.

I have plenty of friends at school; TSC hasn't really affected any of my friendships: mostly, it has just faded away into the background.

At home, my main hobby is computers. I want to learn how to program, but most of the time on the computer I just end up playing games :). I've put together my own computer and have fun taking free spare parts to put together others. Most likely, if computers hadn't interested me, I wouldn't have even tried to make this site as a project for my class.

I hope that this site proves itself useful to you!