Soccer player is not off the field due to her Epilepsy

On Thursday, Seton Catholic senior Katie Blomberg had many reasons to be thankful.Although Blomberg suffers from epilepsy, she has a mild form (absence), and her seizures, which can occur as many as "25 to 30" times a day, hardly resemble the violent and uncontrollable shaking that sometimes afflicts those with the severest form (grand mal).

"On my bad days, I can kind of get a little tired because there's some strain on my brain," said Blomberg, a high-scoring forward on the soccer team. "But (the seizures) aren't even noticeable most of the time. At the worst, they may last five to eight seconds. When they happen, about the only thing I do is kind of flutter my eyes."

Blomberg, diagnosed about seven years ago when she was almost 10, hasn't let epilepsy prevent her from becoming an athlete at Seton, where she holds the school record in the 2-mile run. Blomberg, who is receiving interest from college soccer coaches, scored 26 goals and had 15 assists as she helped Seton collar a fifth straight Class 3A championship. She has played volleyball and run cross country, but it's her soccer that has opened eyes.

"She was a defender when I got here last year, but I moved her to forward because she's aggressive and I thought her ability to finish was better than most," Seton coach Casey Tate said. "She's quick, fast and one of our leaders. Whenever we need someone to step up, Katie does it."Katie was determined to not allow epilepsy to slow her on the field, her mother, Linda, said."The way it was explained to us by her neurologist is that she has a misfiring in her brain," Linda said. "But she's never once let it get her down. She's very motivated.

She's accepted it as her thing in life and deals with it on a daily basis. She understands it could be a lot worse. We're thankful it's not. She could have the full-blown seizures, and that would be really bad because she wouldn't be able to play sports."Katie not only plays, she does so with vigor and envied ability."It's never stopped me," she said. "I won't let it. I really don't even think about it a lot. When I get them, I can sometimes hear people talking to me and sometimes I can't. Sometimes I can still carry on a conversation and sometimes I can't."

"The only real bad side is I can't drive."Katie said she won't be able to drive a car until her seizures disappear for at least three months. At the moment, she doesn't know when or if that will happen, because in 5 percent of the cases, the symptoms never go away."My (neurologist) said people who have the mild form of epilepsy that I have usually outgrow them by they time they are 18," Katie said. "Some go into their mid-20s before they go away. But mine are actually getting worse and not really responding to medicine after a certain amount of time when I take them."

Katie recalls having a seizure during a soccer match only once."A lot of times I can't even tell," she said. "But one time I was dribbling the ball and I kind of shanked my kick because I started having a seizure. I had one playing volleyball once, but I was still able to set the ball."Seton midfielder Shannon Desmond, who has known Katie since kindergarten and often acts as her chauffeur, said her friend is a role model."She's a great soccer player and is as good as everybody else," said Desmond, who scored a team-high 31 goals last season.

"She's awesome. She's always positive."You can't even tell when she's having her seizures unless you're really close to her. Her eyes just kind of roll back in her head. It doesn't scare me anymore. I'm used to it."