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fearful of being awake during surgery and panic attacks
Mon, 02/23/2009 - 12:52Topic: Surgery and Devices
my daughter is 20 y/o considering surgery for parietal and occipital seizures, she is very fearful of being awake and having electrodes on brain and during surgery , she has had panic attacks in past and is worried how she will deal with process if she developes panic attack. she has been told she would not be able to get anything for anxiety because it could reduce chance of observing seizure activity during electrode testing and in surgery. any comments on how difficult it is to be awake with brain exposed and electrodes? I hate to have this fear hold her back, she is running out of seizure med options due to side effects. thanks
Comments
Re: fearful of being awake during surgery and panic attacks
Submitted by rikk on Tue, 2009-02-24 - 18:04
hi, mitsyb seems to have covered most of the information as far as the surgery is concerned.. the brain itself has no pain sensory ability. so it won't be a big issue as far as that goes. the scared out of your wits is not easy to deal with. some of the things used by others are bio-feedback, visualization, that kind of stuff. it may help. i hope it dose. rikk
Re: fearful of being awake during surgery and panic attacks
Submitted by SassyMindy on Wed, 2009-03-18 - 17:09
Hi,
I am Mindy I am 24 and I had two mapping surgeries done. They put me out to put the grids and strips on but as soon as you come out of the operating room your awake or at least coming out of it. I was on a lot of pain medication for most of the time I was awake ...yes it hurts. However I must say it does get better as time goes on. I must say I was so tired because of all the seizures I hardly noticed my brain was open and I had all the grids and strips up there (thats what they use for mapping) I am not sure if I am to late to be answering this post cause it was written in February but I wish her all the luck in the world and tell her it's nothing to be afraid of. I was awake for my surgery (I had sub motor cortex surgery) and that was even pretty okay. Oh and I also have general anxiety disorder. We figured that out after the surgery of course but even so I am pretty sure I had it all along. I hope this helps and it makes her a little more comfortable. If she ever needs to talk you can leave me a message or you can usually find me in the chat.
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SassyMindy
Re: fearful of being awake during surgery and panic attacks
Submitted by cathyrn7 on Sun, 2009-03-01 - 09:33
thank you so much for your comments, it really helps to hear from people who have been through it and we definitely will weigh all your advice. thanks again:)