On the outside, Nate Tandler may look like any other 23-year-old farm boy. But, a type of tumor causing epilepsy has rocked his brain since birth, leaving him with the abilities of a seven-year-old.

“He was having 345 seizures a day and he was actually going into baby state, where he didn't talk, he didn't do anything, he just seizured the whole time,” says his mom Kim Tandler, recalling Nate’s condition before his first brain surgery as a kid.

Nate had surgeries as a child, which helped a bit. But after years of not making progress, Nate's mom and dad took him to doctor Rae Hanson at Luther Midelfort in Eau Claire.

"The tumor itself is uncommon and surgery for it originally was thought to be impossible but over the last several decades it's become more possible,” says Hanson.

He told them about a new procedure done at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.

"He asked us why we didn't do the surgery yet, and at that point we did not know even that he could have it done,” says Kim.

His dad Drew says he was “very nervous” for Nate to have the surgery, because it was so new, and very few people had ever had it done.

But after weighing the options, Nate and his family drove to Phoenix this August and had the surgery, removing 80 percent of the tumor.

"It was very, very rare. Nathan was only about the 140th person to have this done," says Kim.

Since then, his mom says he's recovering well, and is able to get out and about more.

“Every once in awhile he'll go a day or two without having any seizures but we're still not seizure free and we still hope to get to that point,” says Kim.

And with November as epilepsy awareness month, Nate’s family wants others to be aware of the options out there for their children.

Even though his seizures have improved, his mom says he'll never overcome the brain damage he has from the years of repeated seizures. He is able to do more things now after the surgery.

She says he will have another surgery to remove the remaining 20 percent of the tumor from his brain sometime in the next year.