Racing Uphill

"Stacia Kalinoski has been an inspiration in my life and my son’s life, giving hope to those with epilepsy through her resolve and willingness to stand up for herself and others with seizure disorders. Her memoir further highlights her amazing fighting spirit. Within these pages, she offers encouragement to millions of Americans struggling—that they, too, can overcome." —Wayne Drash, Emmy Award–winning journalist and author

The candid, inspiring story of a woman’s experience with a chronic, unpredictable neurological condition

When twenty-nine-year-old reporter Stacia Kalinoski regained consciousness on a couch at the  TV station where she worked, she assumed that she’d had another seizure. But the electrical storm that had just torn through her brain was more destructive than she could have imagined, and the broadcast journalism career she loved swiftly came to an end. Forced to confront the reality of her medical condition, Kalinoski made the risky decision to undergo brain surgery, targeting the epilepsy that was ravaging her life.

In Racing Uphill, Kalinoski describes the seizures that occurred while she was running, which led to her pursuit of an uncertain cure. Rallying the grit she developed as an athlete and engaging the research and reporting skills she acquired as a journalist, she gives us a rare inside look at the ways epilepsy can change a life. Moving beyond her own personal experience, Kalinoski interviews prominent epileptologists to understand how seizures can spread, steal memories, and create strange behaviors and mood disorders. She seamlessly joins what she learned from her research with her own story, offering valuable insight into the experience of grappling with a relentless neurological disease.

The vivid auras that preceded seizures and the damage that followed; the toll of her epilepsy on her family and loved ones; the extraordinary determination her reckoning required—these are all part of Kalinoski’s story of adversity, denial, acceptance, and resilience. In sharing the remarkable opportunity that epilepsy presented for her courage and growth, Stacia Kalinoski speaks to anyone facing an uphill battle and offers inspiration for taking control of one’s own health.

Stacia Kalinoski is an Emmy Award–winning TV news journalist whose documentary Brainstorm premiered on Twin Cities PBS and was nominated for a regional Emmy Award. Before a seizure ended her broadcast journalism career, she reported for television stations in Nebraska, Oregon, and Michigan. She now shares her story as a motivational speaker.

Contents

Prologue

1. You Can Run Faster

2. Tonic-Clonic (or, How to Worry a Parent)

3. Tough As Nails

4. Cornhusker

5. Sleepless in Seattle

6. Calming the Storm

7. Déjà Vu

8. A Difficult Patient

9. Missing Reminiscing

10. Level 4: Denial

11. Looking for Answers

12. Bizarre and Unique

13. Nowhere Else to Hide

14. Jamais Vu

15. Epilepsy Wins

16. Termination

17. The Best Place to Start Over

18. Coming Home and Reaching New Heights

19. Stigma, Up Close and Personal

20. Black and White

21. A Battery of Tests

22. “You Are a Candidate”

23. Back behind the Camera

24. Brain Mapping

25. Caregivers’ Worry Never Ends

26. Brainstorm

Resources and Further Reading

Acknowledgments