To Mayo with Hope: Raising funds for Meg Busing

To know Meg Busing is to love her. We learned this, easily, in our years of friendship with her. Some of us met her in high school, some in college. Maybe you’ve crossed paths with Meg as a camper, volunteer, or parent through Camp YouCan. Maybe you’ve worked with her on a board or heard her speak about her journey with epilepsy. Maybe you’re a relative, a parent from her kids’ schools, a neighbor, a friend, a person who has been deeply affected by her story and her unparalleled empathy and hopefulness.

Now, her signature sense of hope is being challenged, and we’re looking for your support to help her find a path forward.

As many of you know, Meg began having seizures in 2003 – the result of a TBI from a car accident in 1998. In 2011, when her eldest son Brody was 2, Meg had a temporal lobectomy, where surgeons removed part of her left temporal lobe and hippocampus. As a result of the surgery, Meg was seizure free for many years. In that time, she focused on her family, had two more beautiful kids, and founded Camp YouCan and the Midwest YouCan Foundation with her husband Kael. She was focused on everything she CAN do, and everything she can help others accomplish while living with epilepsy.

Life was busy and wonderfully normal. But in January 2020, Meg’s seizures returned out of nowhere, and soon her disappointment led to feelings of fear, hopelessness, and uncertainty. A chapter she thought had closed for good had been reopened, and the path forward seemed murky at best. Learning to live with seizures once again has compromised her quality of life and made her anxious about what lies ahead.

But true to form, Meg got to work looking at her options, researching new therapies and treatments, and coming up with a plan. With her current epilepsy treatments not showing the positive effects she’d hoped for, she sought out a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic. She called, shared her story, and an appointment at Mayo was scheduled.

Meg and Kael initially traveled up to Mayo in December 2022, where doctors did an MRI and an EEG, and she met with members of their neurology team. With the data they gathered, and after reviewing her charts from past surgeries and evaluations, her doctors asked Meg to return to Mayo next week, beginning February 9th, for an extended visit.

Once she begins her stay, she will be taken off all seizure meds, exposed to seizure-provoking stimulants, and won’t be discharged until she’s had enough seizures to give her team adequate information. This could be anywhere from 4 to 10 days. The information they gather will help the doctors at Mayo determine why the seizures are back, where in Meg’s brain they’re coming from, and the best course of treatment going forward – whether that’s new medications, more surgery, or other innovative seizure treatments.

The whole thing can be a very lonely and uncertain experience. It's scary. It’s overwhelming. But beneath all of that, it’s a truly hopeful step toward being where Meg wants to be once again: Seizure free and confident in her future.

We’re coming to you to ask for donations to support Meg, Kael, Brody, Jones, and Gracie as Meg embarks on this next phase of her journey. Travel to Mayo, meals and lodging for Kael, time off work, and medical bills add up quickly, and we want to make this as easy for them as possible. Anything you can give will go a long way toward supporting our wonderful friend and her amazing family.

All of us who have crossed paths with Meg are better for it. Now let’s help make life better for her. Thank you in advance for your generosity.