Brain Surgery

Re: Brain Surgery

Submitted by aussie2006 on Mon, 2008-06-09 - 05:31

Hi,

I had surgery on left temporal lobe /hippocampus on March 1st 2006, I have not had a siezure since , before surgery i was taking 14 tablets a day for epilepsy, I am still coming off the medication because I had been taking them so long but I am currently only taking 6 tablets a day and hope to get it down to about 2 a day.

I  initially only intended to have all the preminary testing done and I had no intentions of letting anyone open up my head and mess around with my brain. After all the testing I met the surgeon and that changed everything for me.  He told me I had a 70% chance of a cure-, no doctor ever had said I could be cured, a 20% chance of improvement,and 10% chance of, no change or worse off. The surgeon explained that the surgery is less complicated than removing an appendix,and told me he could do it for me the following week,this was a big plus because I didnt have a lot of time to  wait , I had knocked back a vacancy twice when I was going for the prelinary testing because I had long periods to wait and think about it.

If you are given the ok for surgery I would strongly reccomend it,any good surgeon would not proceed with surgery if there was a risk to you. It is a life altering operation.

I am still to obtain my drivers licence ,but this cant be done until I have stopped the medication reductions as it is law in Australia that you cannot get a licence whilst coming off anti convulsant medications

It is a big decision and a hard one to make , but what a difference it makes to your life.

I was in a private hospital for 1week  then at home recovering a further 6 weeks before returning to work.

Re: Brain Surgery

Submitted by Sheri1969 on Tue, 2008-05-20 - 00:47

I had brain surgery done in March of 1990. I can remember the date, time and how long it took the entire details of the surgery because I was awake.  I was TERRIFIED about the surgery, knowing that one wrong move could basically kill me.  But I also knew that without it I had little chance of surviving due to the severity of my seizures.  I think people don't go through with it because of the intense fear of the unknown.  I paced the floor almost constantly between the time I was told I was booked for surgery on March 27, to the time I went to bed that night and even up to the time I had the local freezing done and was wheeled away.  Fear is a strong emotion and I think it is that which keeps people from going through. 

Jesus Is My Rock, Music Is My Sanity. Sheri L. Adams

Re: Brain Surgery

Submitted by mommy2kyra on Mon, 2006-03-13 - 12:38

Hi Lisa-Marie, I am being considered for brain surgery, and happen to go in tomarrow for intracranial monitoring (electrodes placed on the brain surface and inside of the brain to pinpoint my exact seizure focus/foci). I have had to go through a lot of tests to get me this far, and they wouldn't do it if they didn't think that they had a reasonably good chance of fixing the problem. On the same hand, I wouldn't go through all of this if I didn't believe the same. While I know that there will be some cognitive effects (and I don't yet know exactly what those will be), I am confident in my team of doctors. They are brilliant and compassionate, and that has given me strength to go forward. I am scared to have brain surgery, of course, (who wouldn't be??) but I know that this is the best option for me. I wish you the best of luck! Heather :)