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Pros and Cons to Surgery?
Fri, 08/17/2007 - 14:46Hello,
I just joined and have alot of questions. I'm 44 yrs. old and have had temporal lobe seizures since I was 5. Since age 24 the seizures have been controlled fairly well...just auras occasionally. The last 5-6 yrs. things have been gradually picking up, I'm sure due to hormones starting to change. I finally had to give up driving in July. That's been very difficult. I'm a Mom and wife and work full time. I went through the first Phase of testing for surgery. They're ready to do the second Phase of surgically implanting the electrodes if I want to. I have so many mixed feelings about going through this. I have a 5 yr. old daughter who's starting school in a few weeks and I just got home after already being in the hospital for 11 days for the first phase of testing.
For those that have been through it, how successful was the surgery? What was the recovery time? Did you have any problems after? How many of you went through the surgery for EEG testing and were not a candidate the actual Epilepsy surgery? Has anyone had this done through Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit? What was your opinion on the team of Dr.'s they have? How much is VNS Therapy used? I have more questions, but I'll stop here for now.
Thanks!
Judy
Comments
Re: Re: Pros and Cons to Surgery?
Submitted by JGS on Fri, 2007-08-17 - 20:51
Thank you peppermintpatty! It sounds like you've gone through alot. Especially with no support. I can be a strong person, but when it comes to my daughter I don't feel as strong. I feel like I'm letting her down if I take my attention away to focus on this. Of course I talked to her twice every day when I was in the hospital and she came to see me a few times. It was very hard for me to be away from my family. My husband was the one that told me I needed to have this first phase of testing done. I can't complain of not having support. It's too soon to tell, but hopefully the adjustment they made to my medications will help. So far I am still having some auras and had a seizure. In the meantime, I'm trying to gather all the information I can in case the medications don't work.
Thanks again and good luck to you!
Judy
Re: Pros and Cons to Surgery?
Submitted by missy_hp on Sun, 2007-09-30 - 02:40
Hi,
I recently had my surgery done on my right temporal lobe at Henry Ford hospital. The team of doctors I had were wonderful to me and my family. It has only been a couple months and I feel like a new person already. There aren't enough words I can use to describe how blessed I feel to have had that team of docors do this for me. I never thought I could feel the way I feel now. I am so confident that I will continue to remain seizure free. Good luck to you and I hope it all works out for you!
Re: Pros and Cons to Surgery?
Submitted by peppermintpatty on Fri, 2007-08-17 - 18:27
Hi Judy, I'm 48 and have epilepsy since I was 2 yrs old.During my life they had grown worse and non of the meds they had tried did anything to help.So I started to look at surgery when I was 29 and did the whole work up even the grid work and a wada test etc.Before I go on I want you to know that I had 2 sons one was in 2cd grade and the other in 3rd. My husband was usless so before I would go though all of this I prayed for someone to take care of my sons as I wouldn't be home for a month if no one showed up I knew it was not ment to be...nicks teacher volantiered to take them in her home so I knew it was the thing I was to do.Like I said my ex husband was no good so I had to catch the train to go up to the hospital and then a bus. Anyways to make it short... after all the testing they found out they were unable to do the sugery as I have a huge nerve running down my left temporal region and I would become to much more handicap than now with the siezures so no surgery. But April of the next yr they did try the new surgery called a subdural peel and I was siezure free for a month and then BOOM I got smacked with a whooper! Doc said he thought that might happen but not that fast.see they could not cut that nurve so the they started to spark off that nerve and jump to a new spot. all the difference is is now I have no more aura. I have had a v.n.s. put in me too, I had them take it out...it seemed to make my siezures worse so the whole thing is out wire leads and all!If you are a strong person phisicaly and emotionally you can do it.I did it without my husbands help at all he didn't help me when I came back home and he didn't come to see me,the house was trashed and dished not washed.so I had to do all that when I got home 3 days out of surgery and my sons helped me alot after school though. sorry so long but just wanted you to know what I went through without support. peppermintpatty