Level 4 Epilepsy Center? Anyone Been There?

[brain]

Has anyone been to the Level 4 epileptologist Center?

If so - What was your experience like? I will be
heading that direction soon, will be meeting the
epileptologist next week, but won't be using the facilities
until later on, have an upcoming surgery.

Thanks for any response and replies!

[Bernard]

Never been, but according to this:

A specialty epilepsy center is a program providing comprehensive diagnostic and treatment services primarily or exclusively to patients with intractable epilepsy - that is, patients whose seizures have not been brought under acceptable control using the resources available to the family physician or general neurologist. Such a program is staffed by physicians, nurses, technologists, psychologists, and others with specialized training and experience in the field. "Tertiary-level" medical centers should provide the basic range of medical, neuropsychological, and psychosocial services needed in an epilepsy referral center. Surgical services are generally not provided except on a referral or emergency basis. Eventually, tertiary-level centers will be found in many university and some large community hospitals.

"Fourth-level" medical epilepsy centers serve as regional or national referral facilities, providing services to millions of people. These centers should provide the more complex forms of intensive neurodiagnostic monitoring (INDM) and other diagnostic procedures, more extensive neuropsychological and psychosocial services, and limited neurosurgical services for epilepsy treatment. A more sophisticated staffing mix should also be found in a fourth-level center.

A "fourth-level" surgical epilepsy center should be capable of conducting complete surgical evaluations, as well as having staff with the expertise to perform a broad range of surgical procedures for epilepsy. A fourth level center may consist of separate medical and surgical programs, or there may be one combined medical and surgical program.

It sounds as if you are being referred either to get some testing done there which can't be done at other places, or a surgical procedure which no one else can do. Either way, you are going to be seen by specialists in the field.

[brain]

This was too amazing!

Got to meet the epileptologist, his Nurse, some of the staff, and the
epileptologist was able to know exactly what the problem was, and
it was helpful being a native here, and plus being part of
one huge hospital system, and with the additional stuff I
brought in -- it all fell in place - all the epileptologist needs to do now
is to find out what stage / phase or level - whichever you
want to call it - I am at. He is also looking at some other
issues that were also problematic at birth. All of this stuff
were preventable and treatable, but why they didn't treat
me like all other newborns, is up in the air.

Because I already had some tests performed last month
and this month, he's merely updating some things, so indeed
the past DID play a very, very important role on that day.
They made some copies of some of those carbon copies of
the past.

I did some research and study on what he told me, and
it nearly knocked me out of my chair, he was dead-eye,
and I'm like - "How could they possibility miss this when
this was so common and right under their own noses?"

And the sad part is - while this could have been treated
and preventable and stopped, but no one did anything
about it and this progressed as it is known for. In other
words, I didn't have to undergo all of this!

I'm not disclosing what it is yet, because he's looking at
some other common things that may also be there along-
side. Once all the test results come back in and he's got
the final answer(s). It will then be determined what CAN
be done ... and where am I at the point of stage, if any
thing can be done.

So again being a native and being confined to the same
area made it easy on the epileptologist, as everything is here and
not scattered abroad. He's the final authority and had
been reviewing my case and already declared it:

Intractable Complex Partial Epilepsy with Secondary Generalization