BOY'S AFFLICTION SPAWNS EPILEPSY GROUP : PARENTS FORM SOCIETY TO HELP EPILEPTICS.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Cody Slinger turned 15 last week, and just started his first year at Camarillo High School. Though eager to learn, Cody is just now realizing that he's different, his parents say.

Cody has started asking questions about his future. His father, Scott Slinger, recalls not long ago, when Cody asked if he would ever have a girlfriend. Once, Cody said he cannot wait to turn 16 and drive.

His father says he often asks, ``will these seizures ever stop?''

The Slingers are always honest.

``We don't know what will happen in his future,'' Scott Slinger said. ``We just want to give him the best quality of life right now.''

Cody has epilepsy. He looks like a typical 15-year-old - a blond-haired high school student in T-shirt and jeans with a taste for live hockey and pizza, but every few minutes, his blue eyes glaze over with open-eyed momentary blackouts - ``absence seizures.''

Cody's parents, Jody and Scott Slinger, discovered their son had the disease when he was diagnosed at age 5. The reality was devastating, Scott Slinger remembers.

``I can't fix it,'' Scott Slinger said, recalling his initial feelings of denial, frustration and self-blame. ``Dads are supposed to protect their children. I felt like I let him down.''

For years, the couple searched for support groups to help them understand Cody's disorder. Though they gained some advice, the Slingers could only find groups for mostly adults with epilepsy and their loved ones.

There was nothing local that catered to parents of children with the disease, the Slingers said.

So three years ago, they started their own support group in Ventura County - the Tri County Epilepsy Society. The group has since grown to serve anyone with the same fears the Slingers faced 10 years ago.

``We want people to know that they're not alone,'' Scott Slinger said. ``We're not doctors. We're not specialists. We're just two parents who have gone through it.''

Cody takes medication - the little pills slow his seizures down to one every seven or eight minutes - as opposed to a blackout every one or two minutes without medication.

The pills help, but they are also a part of the cause of Cody's slow maturation rate, the Slingers said. During his seizures he is unable to learn or absorb his surroundings. In between seizures, he is sometimes so groggy from the pills that he feels separated from the world.

Cody's maturity level is five years behind his peers. He studies from second-grade textbooks, his parents said.

Jody Slinger, president of the Tri County Epilepsy Society, said others with epilepsy who attend meetings have helped her understand Cody's disorder.

``I am a mother of a son with epilepsy,'' she said. ``I don't know what he's going through. But if I can listen to an adult or young adult expressing what it feels like, I can better understand my son.''

Cody is among the 2.5 million Americans who have epilepsy, according to the American Epilepsy Society. Roughly 125,000 new patients are diagnosed each year.

According to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the disease often starts in early childhood, and sometimes lasts throughout life.

Epilepsy is a functional disorder of the brain, a kind of occasional glitch in the vast internal electrical system which controls everything people feel and do, society officials said.

These brief malfunctions - called seizures - may temporarily block awareness. They can also cause uncontrollable shaking, convulsions, confusion, or affect the senses.

Phyllis Rutola, vice president of the Tri County Epilepsy Society, has no children or relatives with the disease.

But as a nurse who performs brave wave tests at the Vista Del Mar Psychiatric Hospital, she has seen hundreds of patients with epilepsy over the years.

``There's a stigma attached to these people,'' said Rutola, who lives in Newbury Park. ``At one time, they were believed to be possessed by the devil. They were put in mental institutions.''

The solution of this ignorance is education, Rutola believes.

At monthly meetings, the Slingers remind people that epileptics are not mentally ill. They shatter the myth that epileptics aren't allowed to go to school. And they enlighten those who think that epileptics are not allowed to marry in some states.

FOR INFORMATION

For more information about the Tri County Epilepsy Society or to attend a meeting, call 484-1549. Informational pamphlets are also available.

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Photo

Photo: (color) Cody Slinger, 15, holds his pet iguana WildThing while his mother, Jody, cuddles the family dog in one hand and provides a perch for a macaw in the other. Seated behind are Cody's brother, Jason, and his father, Scott.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News