Age - 35
Date of Surgery (mm/yyyy) - 11/01/1994 and 11/15/1994
Success % (if specified by doctor) - 70%
Frequency of seizures (before and after surgery) - 1 - 2 per month at the time, although varying times in my life, I had multiple seizures every week.
Medications(before and after surgery) - Tegretol XR at the time and afterwards. Before Tegretol, I had tried Mysoline, dilantin, valium, depakote, felbatol, and phenobarbitol.
Profession (before and after surgery) - I was a student before and right after the surgery. I then went on to become a sales assistant, a customer service rep, third level technical support and then an IT Director.
Please describe the problems that you faced or are facing after surgery (e.g. Memory Problems , depression, migraine etc) - depression was a major problem. It was very hard to adapt at first to a normal life. It was very scary wondering if I was going to have a seizure or not. I waited for three years afterwards to get my drivers license. Another problem I faced afterwards was with my mom. She had always taken care of me and then, all of a sudden, I was normal. We grew apart afterwards and never had the closeness we did again. In fact, the sad thing is, she went into severe depression and ended up developing alzheimer's.
How long did you have to stay at the hospital - 3 weeks
Did have to go to any therapist after the surgery - No, but I probably should have. It was really depressing when I realized all that I had missed out on when I became normal. I had lived a very sheltered life growing up. My mom was a helicopter parent that never let me play with other kids because of the seizures. Plus, I never had kids that would play with me because of the seizures too. After several years though, I can't complain because now that I do so much stuff, such as skydiving, crotch rockets, scuba diving, and such, I look at these middle aged people with boring lives and laugh.
In how many days were you able to get to work - I didn't work at the time. I was still in college. I went back to class full time that fall.
Other experiences -
Any advice for me - I say to go in with excitement. I did because I knew it was going to change my life and it did.
Just message if you have any questions.
