The 10-year-old boy’s blue eyes sparkle as he sits in a royal blue chair, one of the many brightly colored chairs in the play place.

John Satterfield looks like any other boy his age, decked out in his crimson red shirt with the words “It’s Gone” in bold print above a baseball. Navy knee-length shorts and patriotic-colored red, white and cerulean blue sneakers finish out his ensemble.

His mom, Deb, has to keep John from being too mischievous in the play place. John keeps Deb on her toes, especially when he tries to open the exit door of the play place.

But right now, John is going through a routine many children do not have to do – he’s taking his medicine.

“Swallow it down. Quick like a bunny,” Deb said, after she places two orange pills and pours the powders from three turquoise and black candy-like capsules into his petite mouth.

John raises the can of soda he’s holding to his mouth and takes a lengthy sip and closes his eyes.

“Mmmm,” he said in contentment after he swallows some of the fizzy citrus soda.

John suffers from a condition called epilepsy – what doctors call a seizure disorder.

Epilepsy is marked by recurring motor, sensory or psychic malfunctions with or without unconsciousness or convulsive movements. A seizure is a rapid and extreme discharge of electrical activity in the nervous system that often causes a change in behavior.

Deb knows epilepsy cannot be cured, but medication can help control it. But for some children, such as John, medicine doesn’t work.

John has temporal lobe epilepsy. This type of epilepsy affects the parts of the brain that manage memory and emotions. John has problems at both temporal lobes on the left and right side. This kind of epilepsy can cause partial and generalized seizures.

Generalized seizures are caused by irregular electrical activity that affects all parts of the brain’s surface. These seizures usually involve the whole body. Partial seizures are caused by electrical charges that start in a certain region of the brain.

John has myoclonic seizures, which causes the body to shake, and he has absence seizures – when a person looks into space for a matter of seconds and then comes out of it, not aware of what occurred. John also has complex partial seizures, which alter his point of consciousness, and sometimes he has secondarily generalized tonic clonic seizures, which cause his limbs to stiffen and then face and limbs to jerk.

Surgery to treat epilepsy removes a region of irregular tissue in the brain, often the target area where the seizures begin.

There are four kinds of epilepsy surgery, and the type of surgery depends on the area in the brain where the seizures begin. An electroencephalogram is usually done to find the specific area where the seizures start in the brain. This helps doctors decide if it can be safely removed.

John had an EEG done before his surgery, and it showed the seizures were coming from the left temporal lobe region of his brain.

“His first EEG he found hundreds of seizures on it,” Deb said.

The doctors told Deb after surgery that the seizure activity in the left temporal area was so bad that no medication could have ever controlled it.

“Medicine was not touching it. It helped, but he still was having 700 on medicine. If he didn’t have medicine, it was double that,” Deb said.

After the surgery, John’s baby-sitter, Brian Lounsberry, noticed differences.

“The energy levels are really high,” Lounsberry said.

John’s surgery has allowed him to speak words verbally and through sign language, but he cannot hold a conversation. Before surgery, John could barely speak.

“There was no time between seizures that was significant enough to do anything,” Deb recalled. “There was times I remember he couldn’t say anything.”

Deb says they understand each other and can communicate basic things.

Before surgery, Deb said, John couldn’t do anything since he would have a seizure. If he had a seizure at school, he couldn’t even walk.

“Your whole day revolved around when the next seizure was going to happen,” Deb said.

Kate Reynolds, physical therapist at ChildServe Childcare Center, 1915 Philadelphia St., works with patients from birth to 21 years of age.

Reynolds’ primary patients are those who have neurological disorders such as epilepsy. John is one of her patients.

Reynolds said she has been able to be more successful with therapy for her patients who have had surgery for epilepsy.

“Usually the better management of seizures [and] the therapy can be more successful and progress can be faster,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds works with them on improving gross motor skills such as balance, coordination and strengthening. She helps patients become more independent through motor planning activities, such as following three-step directions or putting together objects.

“The ultimate goal is to get them age-appropriate with skills,” Reynolds said.