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Left temporal lobectomy
Sun, 12/10/2006 - 18:37Topic: Surgery and Devices
Hi!
This is my first time in the community forum, and I'm hoping to hear from those of you who have had a left temporal lobectomy. I've had partial seizures for 12 years, and was properly diagnosed about 2 years ago. I was told for years that my seizures were panic attacks. Go figure. Anyway, I've been on 8 medications without success, and am now being told that a lobectomy is my best option. My MRI shows a definitive lesion on my left temporal lobe. I'm a 34 yr old woman, married and have 2 young boys (3 and 4.5 yrs old) and I'm most worried about the speech and memory issues that could arise after surgery. How long is the recovery process, both from the perspective of regaining speech and memory capabilities, and from the perspective of being able to be physically active? How severe is the word-finding issue? I really worry about the impact the surgery will have on my ability to be there for my children. Are there any other young moms out there who've had surgery, and if so - how did you deal with it? And how did your children cope with the situation? Any advice would be appreciated. I meet with my neurosurgeon at UCSF in a few weeks.
-FMS
Comments
Re: Left temporal lobectomy
Submitted by angel_lts on Tue, 2006-12-19 - 08:46
Hi FMS,
I have dealt with the surgery many times. I was 34, 36, and 37 years old. My children were 5, 7, 9, and 11. It was very hard with the children. For I was always worried about them most of all. But my children grew up with epilepsy. They just know mom had seizure and that she needed to get fixed so I could help raise them even better. But it was very hard for them. WHen I spoke with them about it and how long I would be in the hospital two said not one word, and just walked away after I had the conversation. My older one asked many questions, I wanted to break down and cry but did not. He asked if I could die. I had to be completely honest with him.
But I was in the hospital for over three weeks each time I had surgery. I made sure I talked to them almost everyday. My husband brought the kids very often. It was so hard for my husband, working, taking care of the kids, the house.....Plus running back and forth to the hospital so often and it was over an hour away.
Memory problems is hard now and worse when I dont get enough sleep. Mine was on the left side also and my speech and movement was in that area too.
I took about a month. I would walk a bit up the street when I was ready but a little at a time. I mean I would move from house to house each day till I got up the street. I did have some finishing sentence problems. I did finish finally it took a month.
I went back to taking care of my children right away. They would help me out for they knew mommy would be a bit sick for a short time and that they had to be good.
Right after each surgery I was well aware right away. It is not like you are totally out of it. At least that is how I was.
I am not seizure free after all that, but did decrease 15 complex partial seizures a month. To me it was till a success.
I want to wish you the best with your surgery.
take care
Lisa
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/epilepsyapproach/
Re: Re: Re: Left temporal lobectomy
Submitted by chumtochatwith on Mon, 2006-12-18 - 08:39
Hey FMS, I am completely and totally seizure free, yes. My meds are decreased and will be over the next year or so. They have to wean them slowly unfortunately or else I would probably be off of them totally but I have been taking them for a long time so they do it slowly to avoid problems. I have never driven so far but I will be able to learn in about 20 months. You have to be seizure free for 2 years min to be able to drive. I probably wasn't up to doing anything until about 3 to 4 weeks after surgery before I was up to going anywhere. I just wanted to sleep. I found that this actually interrupted my sleep patterns because I was sleeping during the day but with some work I was able to get this back to normal. You just can't lift more than 20 pounds for the first month. That is the only limitation after surgery. My tests concluded that my speech was on the right side. It is normally in the dominant hemisphere and I am right-handed so my surgeon was a little suspicious and wanted to play it safe. Therefore, he kept me awake through my surgery also so that he could map out where exactly my speech was. I was anxious and yes you can hear everything but I was okay. The only problem was they had trouble getting my ivs in and the freezing didn't get to my temple so it was a tad painful. But once the anaesthetist noticed he knocked me out I think because I don't remember the last part of the surgery. I have to agree with you, it would have been a lot nicer if I was totally knocked out but there was a reason for it. I haven't had any problems or deficits since my surgery. Everything seems to be about the same. Hopefully, this is helpful. If you have anything else you would like to ask, please feel free. Good luck and God bless! Chumtochatwith