Epilepsy Surgery

[dkoneil]

My now 26 year old son had a left temporal lobectomy a year ago. He has had no seizures since (other than auras when he didn't take his meds). However, I have noticed personality changes that concern me and wanted to know if anyone else has had similar experience. His "filter" is gone - he is much more honest and says exactly what is on his mind. He also seems to have tunnel-vision once he gets an idea in his head. There is no reasoning with him about certain things and his judgment isn't quite as good as it was. He was a senior in college when he had his surgery, managed to go back and graduate (though it was very difficult for him). Has definitely had some depression and is now on an anti-depressant. I'm worried about his future - sticking with a job, that kind of thing. Sometimes I lose sight of the best thing that has happened - that he is seizure free and can drive! Just hoping he can get back to that intelligent, responsible person he was prior to the surgery.

 

[seizuregirl]

That is wonderful that's he's seizure free! I had surgery done last year believing that I would be seizure free, I'd be able to drive, get a better job, and it didn't work, and it messed up my short-term memory big time. I went a couple of rounds with Social Security trying to get on their Disability, even went to court with them! I have depression too, and I try to hide it from my family (hasn't worked) although the few times I've talked to a neuropsychologist trying to figure out how much memory I've lost, I had broke down talking about the stress of the surgery not working and how I felt I was weighing my family down, but I felt MUCH better after talking with her. Perhaps having him talk to a psychologist may help. He may need help now that he's seizure free to help him with both, perhaps his future and what is bothering him now. I wish you both Good Luck!

 

[dkoneil]

Thank you!

Thanks for the input! How did you do with your surgery, recovery-wise? Was it awful or was it easy? My son's was a lot tougher than we expected....but you never know how someone will react to that much anesthesia and having your brain tampered with!

 

[dkoneil]

Short term memory

His is messed up quite a bit, but sometimes it is as if he has an "imprint" of something. Sometimes he will totally repeat himself, but others he thinks he may have asked or told you something before and will say so. The doctors said before surgery that if you hold up a pen, his mind and mouth will say pen. But after surgery, you show him a pen and he knows it is something you write with, but just can't come up with the word pen. That really doesn't happen a lot, but the short-term memory issues are definitely there.

 

[seizuregirl]

From what I can remember, recovery was just 'ok' and I had fun showing off my stitches! Because you've got to have something positive to play with i think instead of having everyone you see say "Oh! You poor thing!". My whole family was anticipating me being seizure free, and then my they told me that I had a seizure and the doctors confirmed it. It was just shock, some anger, and a lot of frustration. I put my life on the line believing that it would work, that I would have a 'normal' life, I wouldn't be weighing my family down by my bad memory, and being unable to drive. It's still stressful not being able to be 'independant.' Although before the seizures began, I didn't drive because I was too scared to lol, and yes, that annoyed my family quite a bit then since there was "nothing" wrong with me. I was just 'strange'.

 

[seizuregirl]

an example of my short term memory would be, my Father telling me that he's going out of town on a business trip on Monday and not to expect him back until Tuesday evening. Monday night comes and I'm making dinner for him, my sister, and myself. Only to be reminded by my sister that he won't be home until the next night and so I've ended up wasting a BUNCH of food in the past year. My family and I make jokes to lighten the situation, and that's fine but its still frustrating that I can't remember the simplest thing such as to buy some milk or a loaf of bread when I'm at the store.

 

[Cint]

My now 26 year old son had a left temporal lobectomy a year ago. He has had no seizures since (other than auras when he didn't take his meds). However, I have noticed personality changes that concern me and wanted to know if anyone else has had similar experience. His "filter" is gone - he is much more honest and says exactly what is on his mind. He also seems to have tunnel-vision once he gets an idea in his head. There is no reasoning with him about certain things and his judgment isn't quite as good as it was. He was a senior in college when he had his surgery, managed to go back and graduate (though it was very difficult for him). Has definitely had some depression and is now on an anti-depressant. I'm worried about his future - sticking with a job, that kind of thing. Sometimes I lose sight of the best thing that has happened - that he is seizure free and can drive! Just hoping he can get back to that intelligent, responsible person he was prior to the surgery.

I had a left temporal lobectomy 20 years ago and was seizure free for 14 months, although surgery has greatly improved since then. But after the surgery, I had a personality change also, and have since then dealt with depression, mood swings, memory loss, sometimes I forget what I'm talking about mid-sentence and loose my train of thought. I now take two AEDs and an anti-depressant. I also went through counseling and was seeing a neuropsychiatrist, one who specializes in brain injury patients. And I went through occupational/cognitive therapy at the University where surgery is performed to learn ways to help with memory.
Has your son had any post surgery therapy?

Here is an interesting article about this issue:

http://www.aesnet.org/files/epc_1318.pdf