Seizure after surgery

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Music36

Stalwart
Messages
445
Reaction score
41
Points
98
I had laser ablation surgery June 2015 on my left temporal lobe. I continued to have auras after surgery, but they decreased over time. I went for over a month without an aura recently. Yesterday, I had my first complex partial since surgery and was devastated. Surgery has changed me in some ways. I am very emotional and can cry easily now. I wasn't like this before surgery. I fell apart after the seizure yesterday. I was alone and called my boyfriend. While trying to calm me down on the phone, he drove to me without telling me and surprisingly walked into my house with his arms opened for a big hug. He helped me calm down.
 
I'm really sorry you had a seizures I am.
Your luck you knew what it was like to be seizure free from surgery.
I had surgery in 1982 a rtL and I never went seizure free at all.
My seizures just got worst as I got older.

Belinda
 
Last edited:
Sorry you had a seizure and hope you feel better.
 
Thank you. I've been tired and not feeling well since the seizure. I also hit my head on the bathroom counter yesterday a couple of hours after the seizure and I had a headache last night.

Belinda- I wasn't exactly totally seizure-free after surgery. I had been having auras and a lot of them the first few months after surgery. My aura is intense fear so it is quite unpleasant. Having many auras throughout the day can really mess with my state of mind. It can change the way I think. But, of course, it's not as bad as having a complex partial. I had come close to having a complex partial several times after surgery, but it was like the surgery stopped it from happening. This time was different. The thing is it was kind of weird like more than one part of my brain was involved in the seizure. I was hallucinating flashing lights which happens with occipital lobe seizures, but I also had the intense fear which is in the temporal lobe area. I have lesions on both left temporal lobe and occipital lobe. Surgery was just on the left temporal lobe.
 
Thank you. I've been tired and not feeling well since the seizure. I also hit my head on the bathroom counter yesterday a couple of hours after the seizure and I had a headache last night.

Belinda- I wasn't exactly totally seizure-free after surgery. I had been having auras and a lot of them the first few months after surgery. My aura is intense fear so it is quite unpleasant. Having many auras throughout the day can really mess with my state of mind. It can change the way I think. But, of course, it's not as bad as having a complex partial. I had come close to having a complex partial several times after surgery, but it was like the surgery stopped it from happening. This time was different. The thing is it was kind of weird like more than one part of my brain was involved in the seizure. I was hallucinating flashing lights which happens with occipital lobe seizures, but I also had the intense fear which is in the temporal lobe area. I have lesions on both left temporal lobe and occipital lobe. Surgery was just on the left temporal lobe.
Having just a aura compared to a full blown seizure that makes a difference.
I have never been controlled and have been in the hospital I don't know how many times for my seizures; i see my neuro next month.surgery didn't work for me drugs don't work for me nothing in over 53 years.
Belinda5000
 
But, of course, it's not as bad as having a complex partial. I had come close to having a complex partial several times after surgery, but it was like the surgery stopped it from happening. This time was different. The thing is it was kind of weird like more than one part of my brain was involved in the seizure. I was hallucinating flashing lights which happens with occipital lobe seizures, but I also had the intense fear which is in the temporal lobe area. I have lesions on both left temporal lobe and occipital lobe. Surgery was just on the left temporal lobe.

Music36,

Sorry to hear of your seizure after surgery. I, too, had a Left Temporal Lobectomy and was only seizure-free for a short time. But, my seizures came back worse than before surgery. Before surgery, I was having CP seizures. After surgery, I not only had CPs, but secondary generalized seizures (or grand mal) along with them.
Plus extreme depression. Now my whole brain is involved at times.

That's life for me. :(
 
Music36 - I think I know you from another (retired) Forum, and I am so sorry to hear that you had a CP seizure recently :(. That must be so discouraging after everything you have been through.

I hope that you feel better soon, and that your brain gives you a break.
 
Belinda,

I know your situation is a lot worse than mine. My worst days years ago would be having 20 complex partials in one day and non-stop auras all day long for three days straight. It was exhausting and frightening. As I've told you before, I can't imagine what it would be like to have tonic-clonics all the time and I'm grateful that I've only had a couple of those in my life. You're strong b/c you don't let them stop you from living. I never let my seizures stop me from living either. I went through undergrad and grad school as a single-mother. I don't know how I made it b/c I had a lot of seizures when I was in school b/c I had a tremendous amount of stress and I'd be up all hours of the night studying. I guess it was determination.
 
Cint,

I'm sorry your surgery made things worse. I've been dealing with bad side effects from surgery, but felt it was worth it b/c the complex partials had stopped until the other day. The first six months after surgery I felt like I was bipolar and had anxiety disorder. I would cry a lot for no reason. It was crazy and it was freaking me out. I felt like my personality had changed. I used to be the type of person who very rarely cried. I kept telling myself that I had to be patient b/c it takes a long time for the brain to heal after surgery. Surgery also made my memory issues worse. It wasn't a big decline in memory though b/c it was already pretty bad from all the seizures.

A secondary generalized seizure is what finally got me correctly diagnosed at age 21 after living with seizures since childhood. One day at age 21, my complex partial went into a tonic-clonic. As a child and teenager, my doctors had assumed my complex partials were anxiety attacks b/c of the intense fear symptom and I was never sent to a neurologist. I always knew they were not anxiety attacks b/c my state of consciousness is altered, but had no idea what was wrong with me.
 
Kgartner,

Thank you. I'm trying not to think about it and just move on. But, I am thinking that maybe I should call my epileptologist about increasing medication. I know who you are. You are correct. We know each other from the other website.
 
Last edited:
Hey Music,

Interesting what you posted, how long have you been on Keppra? I didn't have laser surgery, i had the cut you open so a horseshoe flap was dangling from the side of my head, in order to take out a baseball size tumor. Afterwards they put me on Keppra and one of the side effects is "quick to react or overreact emotionally" I had both at times.

You said "I am very emotional and can cry easily now." I know what that felt like, i thought it was from my Steroids drugs i was being weened off of after the operation. Well anyways, i also was very emotional and would cry at anything that was sad. Mention my dad, who had died 4 yrs earlier and i would go to pieces and start to cry. That was really not like me. And of course i had some temper flare ups that were not really like me either. It seemed to have went away after 6 months on keppra, though, but can't really remember when it went away. I was on keppra for 1 yr.

Anyone else on Keppra have similar experiences, with crying?

Zolt

:piano: :pop:
 
Zolt,

I've been on Keppra since 2006. The emotion issues started right after surgery last year. I do believe I've experienced Kepprages, but that is completely different. The change in emotions and crying is from the Amygdala, which controls emotions, being removed. All my emotions (including happiness) were very powerful and intensified after surgery for several months. I very rarely cried before surgery and was crying a lot for a couple of months after surgery. The thing is I would cry for no reason. I, also, would feel anxiety for no reason. Then, I had the days where I'd feel euphoric. It was crazy. I didn't know what to expect each day when I woke up.
 
Back
Top Bottom