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Contemplating surgery
Thu, 07/19/2018 - 13:36Topic: Surgery and Devices
My daughter starting having seizures several years after being in a severe car accident. She's gone through several medicals to control them. She's now getting ready to be admitted to the hospital to see if she's a candidate for surgery to remove scar tissue. She has scar tissue on her left temporal side.
Can anyone who has had this surgery fill me on the success rate, was it with worth, how long the recovery time is, and anything I can expect afterwards. As a parent, this is freaking me out!
Comments
The success rate for a left
Submitted by RTLEmum on Sat, 2018-08-11 - 21:42
The success rate for a left temporal lobectomy is pretty good. Recovery time when you are young is much shorter than for adults. You are going to want to know what she uses her left temporal lobe for and whether she will lose any function if they take it out. If she has scar tissue--that tissue is probably dead and not doing anything anyway, but you want to understand whether her speech will be affected. The surgery is definitely worth it when it gets rid of seizures--it's one of the few "cures" out there for epilepsy for some people. The bummer is that the success rate is not 100%. They should be able to give you her individualized chance of seizure freedom as well as her risk of complications. You also need to think about the risk of not doing surgery--if she is really having uncontrolled seizures, the risk of harm from those is probably greater over time than the risk of surgery. It is going to be a very tough ordeal for you to go through. It probably will be totally worth it, but since it is your child, you are going to go through it too and in some ways will be more stressed out about it than your child! If you are freaking out, that is normal.
Thanks for sharing your story
Submitted by tntne3 on Mon, 2018-07-23 - 19:56
Thanks for sharing your story! My 21 yo son is a candidate for surgery.