CBS 60 Minutes - Sunday, October 25th, 2009

[batman]

Hello everyone, I found out about something just last night that I'd like to bring to everyone's attention. On Sunday, October 25, 2009 the CBS 60 Minutes is supposedly going to air a segment on CURE and epilepsy. For those of you who don't know about CURE, it is the nonprofit organization, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, and you can find out more about this organization through their website, at cureepilepsy.org

This will be the very first time I have ever heard of, or even seen, in-depth information about epilepsy being aired on nationwide television. Which in my opinion and how I've seen things, means that the Epilepsy Foundation of America did not have anything to do with this upcoming presentation through the media.

Now since this presentation is going to be shown on the CBS show 60 Minutes, I would like to give everyone a "heads up" on how I've seen 60 Minutes operate. 60 Minutes is usually scheduled to come on the air on the hour, such as 7 PM Eastern Time / 6 PM Central Time. However, if there just so happens to be some kind of sports game (football, golf, etc.) that has been scheduled to air at any point before the 60 Minutes, if the sports game last longer than expected, like if a game ends up going into overtime, what's being aired on TV is going to be lasting longer than expected. For example a game was expected to end at 4 PM, but winds up going into overtime and ends at 4:15 PM; what will follow is going to be the 30 minutes CBS Evening News, followed by 30 minutes of local news. If something like this does happen, 60 Minutes is still going to show their 1 hour-long presentation, but it will be starting at 7:15 PM Eastern Time / 6:15 PM Central Time. So for those of you who would like to record that 60 Minutes show on Sunday, October 25th, you might want to set your recorder for an extended amount of time, say maybe 30 minutes or 1 hour extra, in hopes of making sure that you record the entire 60 Minutes show.

[Meetz1064]

me, I WILL BE watching........

[samblank]

Thanks for the heads up and the web link.

[dfwtexas]

I usually watch 60 minutes except during football season as you never know what time it will come on. I will be sure to watch, I wished I could get my family to watch....oh, well!

[joan]

Thanks for the heads up. We will be watching as well.

I hope everyone well*
joan*

[batman]

Bumped up...

If you watched it, please post some feedback on this topic thread about what you saw.

[Nakamova]

Hi --

I just watched the 60 minutes segment. I'm still digesting it, but here are my first reactions: I'm glad that it raised the profile of epilepsy, but I wish the segment had taken up the whole hour -- there's so much more information that people need to know. And I wish it had mentioned treatments in addition to VNS surgery and drugs.

[Meetz1064]

think it was EXCELLENT.....in the fact that it was in there. But I think Nakamova's right. I do think that what was shown was pretty cool though. But an hour long episode would have been soooooooo much better!!!

[batman]

Nearly everything was wonderful. For the only 2 things I did not like, one of which I'm very feed up with hearing, was 1) "Epilepsy being called a disease"; and 2) "2 million people with epilepsy".

The estimated number of people who have epilepsy reached 3 million I believe sometime last year, 2008. And the previous estimations before last year were 2.7 million people with epilepsy; and 2.5 million before that.

Now this is going to my venting about epilepsy labeled as being a "disease". Epilepsy is NOT a disease; epilepsy is a "neurological disorder". Why do you suppose the term "seizure disorder" is used by people who dislike using the word epilepsy? Roughly less than 2 years ago I did a couple of online searches, one was using the words "seizure disorder" in quotation marks; and the other was by using the words "seizure disease" in quotation marks. The search results for "seizure disorder" came up with millions of results. However, the search results for "seizure disease" showed very few results.

Anyway, this is my feedback about what was shown on the CBS 60 Minutes tonight, and like I said when I started this topic thread, I was sure the 'Epilepsy Foundation of America' did not have anything to do with this, since this was going to concern information about epilepsy being shown on national television.

I want to greatly thank the entire Axelrod Family, along with my thanks to the CBS newscast, for bringing information about epilepsy to national public attention.

[batman]

Nakamova,

The brain stimulator treatment was for the RNS, not the VNS.

[Nakamova]

Sorry about that -- yup RNS.

[epileric]

I thought it was well done. I have to agree with Nakamova in that I'd be more interested in learning about treatments, but I think what they covered was well geared more towards spreading awareness. I also think that using the Axelrods was a good idea since most Americans know who he is.

[BuckeyeFan]

I missed it. Could kick myself in the hind end.

I am not usually a fan of 60 minutes or David Axlerod, but applaud them both for this coverage.

Did they mention that more people die from E every year than breast cancer? Boy if it could get that kind of awareness.

(note=I am not against the breast cancer awareness, my Mom has it stage 4 right now)

[Nakamova]

Yes, they mentioned that statistic regarding E mortality as compared to Breast cancer.

[batman]

For those who missed the show, you should be able to watch it via...

www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5419899n#comments

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

For those interested, The 60 minutes "Fight for a Cure" segment willl be made available from Amazon.com soon. To reserve yours, simply click on the link: www.amazon.com/60minutes. The segment will be the first one on your left.

Sorry, they didn't list the price.

[Cint]

I'm grateful epilepsy, seizure disorder, fits, or whatever one wants to call it was finally brought into the spotlight, regardless of who was in the clip. At least it is a start. So many of us have suffered like the Axelrod family. Gone through hell and back to find something that somewhat controls seizures; drugs, brain surgery, VNS, and more drugs, and, yes I know those of you will tell me, diet. I also have diabetes, so I do carefully watch my diet.

[matchu]

I saw it myself and it was rather short, and they vaguely mentioned there are many different types of seizures, but they did not go in depth what so ever. Sure would have been nice if the govt. would have insisted they talk about volunteering to help those with this disorder to go grocery shopping, doctor visits, PHARMACY etc. I think the segment should have been longer and been more informative.

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

Well Matchu, one thing to take heart in is that Susan Axelrod is a very powerful and pro-active woman who just so happens to be married to David Axelrod, Omba's chief advisor. So the government IS hearing this. If they're doing anything, remains to be seen

I have 2 Federal forums to attend in the next 2 weeks. It will be interesrtingf to hear what they have to say and not say.

[matchu]

I am afraid of our government, seems as if reality is something they take lightly. my opinion