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Post surgery questions

Sat, 10/20/2018 - 08:05
Good morning everyone, my name is Lisa. I had left temporal lobe surgery 5 weeks ago. I haven’t had any seizures since then thank God but , my doctor said I still can’t bend over and the only exercise she wants me to do is taking walks everyday. I have a dog that I have to walk a couple of times a day at this point. I was really lucky the first four weeks because my family all took a week on to come and stay with me. I’m 49 I am am married to my wonderful husband and have 2 kids. My oldest is 25 and my youngest is 14. My doggie is 1 year old so walking him is challenging. So I guess my question is how long did it take any of you to feel back to normal. I’m not good at spending the most of my time relaxing. I still get headaches but they aren’t that bad.

Comments

Hi Lisa:So the trick with

Submitted by Jazz101 on Sat, 2018-10-20 - 17:42
Hi Lisa:So the trick with surgery is, as my neurosurgeon pointed out to me, patience. Now by that it doesn't mean you just give up on everything and wait for things to slowly fall back into place. No. Quite the opposite.The trick is to take your eyes off of the clock. Sort of like if you are doing an exam. Eyeing the time just doesn't help. It just makes you more anxious. Recovery was easy for me because the post surgery issues were pointed out to me prior to surgery. Hence, nothing was a surprise.For beginners I knew that, given surgery was going to be close to language and speech and memory, well, I had to make way for complications in those areas post surgery. Complications doesn't mean you aren't going to see a rebound. It just means it will take time. As a result I made sure I spoke with them about speech therapy, which was arranged at another hospital before I was discharged.  Another thing I had to deal with was my sight. No I didn't go blind but I had some complications with images to my far right because, like you, surgery was on my left temporal lobe. Recovery for me was pretty much me just focusing on what had to be done versus looking on what I was missing, or how fast I should be able to do certain things.Take reading for example. Because verbal reading involves interactions between multiple parts of the brain, well, it's not the same as nonverbal reading. That was the first thing I had to adjust to. And the proof was in my therapy. My writing was one thing but reading it was something else. I often realized that what I thought I had written wasn't quite the same when I read it. I was diagnosed with a mild case of Aphasia because my therapist deals with these issues. She spotted the symptoms right away. Not everyone would be able to point it out, but she did. And, being the amazing therapist that she is, well, she was able to outline strategies that I could put in place to take on that diagnosis. Because I have had Epilepsy for most of my life and the fact that I grew up with family members who were in the medical field, well, I took on Epilepsy as just that....a medical condition. Was recovery frustrating at times? Absolutely Lisa. I am sure that is something you are having from time-to-time during recovery otherwise you wouldn't be Lisa. But the trick is to focus on what you are trying to accomplish. Speech therapy for me was a few months but the time passed rather fast because I never tried to eye it. I just remained focused on what had to be done.  My advice to you is to focus on what you have to do versus seeing what you are missing out on. You said you have two kids. Hey, with kids, if you had to focus just on the "downs' of the ups and downs that came with them then you would not be able to be an effective parent. It's what I tell my sister because she has a son and a daughter. I am sure as you look at your kids today they make you laugh when you recall some of the complexities that they displayed when they were younger. It's all a part of the gig. Same with recovery for surgery. I made sure I gave up my early running post surgery because I almost fell because my vision was still readjusting. I took a few steps back and went step by step. Be active Lisa but not too active. My vision did readjust and in terms of language and speech and memory, well, I have developed new strategies to help there. For example, because I am bad with names, if I meet someone new, I try to inject their name every now and then in the conversation and that helps. Let us know how it's going with you from time to time Lisa. Like I said, don't eye the clock too much. Just focus on recovery. Best Regards

Thank you so much for the

Submitted by Lisaw_5aba9d9c41991 on Sun, 2018-10-21 - 09:26
Thank you so much for the advice. It’s a relief to here from someone in a similar situation. There’s only so much I can say to my family. I don’t want to give them anymore stress. 

You are welcome Lisa. Like I

Submitted by Jazz101 on Sun, 2018-10-21 - 17:25
You are welcome Lisa. Like I said, just let us know how it's going. Best Regards

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