round two

[LMReggcellent]

I had a right temporal lobectomy in 2005. Everything went as it was supposed to. The surgery left me without seizures for about four months and I like to think that nowadays they aren't as bad as they were before. I don't regret the surgery at all.

I saw my dr last week and I did not expect her to ask me to consider another surgery. We talked about how I've tried every pill out there and I'm looking at a surgical last resort...again. *note - the vns is not an option for me because of some heart condition. Of course I would have to have another mri and video EEG to see if a surgery is still even an option, I've decided not to schedule them unless I would be interested to have another surgery.

I just thought I would be walking out of my dr's office with no more than an increased prescription and lots of answers. I'm a little taken aback. How many people here have had more than one brain surgery? I'm going to be spending some more time than I used to in these forums. Thanks.

[Nakamova]

Sorry to hear this LMR, that's a tough questions to handle. I haven't had surgery, just wanted to offer my support. And a question -- Any chance you could try neurofeedback to see if it would help?

[Cint]

I had a left temporal lobectomy and was seizure free for 14 months. Before surgery, I was only experiencing complex partial seizures. After surgery, I started have complex partial + tonic clonic seizures. So we were considering a 2nd surgery, but after another MRI, we realized I wasn't a candidate because the real damage was too deep in my hippocampus and if we went in, I would end up like an Alzheimer patient, not being able to speak or remember at all. That is why we tried numerous meds and finally the VNS was my last option. It has helped, but not stopped the seizures completely.

[Endless]

I've never had surgery and really can't advise you, but wanted to offer support as well.

Did your doctor say why she felt more surgery might be the best option for you? Did she offer more than one alternative, with pros and cons for each? If not, another appointment with her to discuss that might give you more to think about and base your decision on.

I'm wishing for the best possible outcome for you.

[LMReggcellent]

Thanks for your responses. As far as other alternatives go there's nothing with a real chance. I've been on all the anticonvulsant drugs out there that are available for me and we've been playing mix-and-match with every med since my diagnosis. That's why I wasn't surprised to get a higher dose of lamotrigine from my dr, get off of keppra and try vimpat again. Theory being it will do something better than it did two years ago. I don't know much about neurofeedback, thanks for that idea.