Vacaville Insider: Mom, What’s TSC?

Matthew Mitchell loves his brother even when 5-year-old Ryan hugs him at soccer practice.

It didn’t take Matthew Mitchell long to introduce himself to his first-grade classmates at Markham Elementary School. On the third day of school, he told them he was going to have a seizure.

The 6-year-old had suffered one a day earlier in the cafeteria, but there was no advance warning. Once that seizure ended, Matthew told the other students at the table that he just had one.

Matthew Mitchell

Such situations cause concern for his mother, Dena Mitchell. She wonders what her son will say when he is asked about his seizures. How does a 6-year-old explain he has Tuberous Sclerosis Complex?

TSC is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow in vital organs. Although Matthew’s seizures “are so tiny, they�re really no big deal,” Mitchell had to prepare her son to answer questions after he has one.

“I’ve never had to deal with the social part of it,” Mitchell said. “I had to think of what he could say and practice it with him. I taught him to say his head gets fuzzy and his muscles get real tight.”

Mitchell is also raising awareness of TSC as the organizer of the annual Lagoon Valley Trail Run in Vacaville. Proceeds benefit the Jack & Julia TSC Clinic at Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Matthew began suffering seizures a month after the 2008 run. Although Mitchell said her son is “doing great” nearly a year later, she feels a sense of urgency to do all she can to promote the cause.

“That made it more real for me,” she said.