Dr. Penfield & the Montreal procedure: Had this 18 yrs ago

Hi @restisaweapon
Thank you for sharing this video with us.
So, you had this surgery 18 years ago. Do you still take medications to control your seizures or are you free of them? I am curious to know where your surgery occurred, was it on the temporal lobe?
Thank you!
Chris (@santosha)

Still take the meds. Surgeon said think of it as an insurance policy. But I always felt the meds were the cause of my inability to focus. I blamed the meds doping me and expected after surgery I could decrease or get rid meds. Was totally surprised to find the damage spot in the brain, when removed, had actually been the sole cause of the absent mindedness. After surgery I had dramatic improvement in my thought processing speed and memory (short term). My memory probably wasn’t bad; just the inability to focus made it hard to memories. This changed our lives. My wife had carried the family and was used to queuing me to stay on task or reminding me. All that changed and she had to learn over time to trust my new brain function

@restisaweapon
Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
One thing I still have difficulty in understanding about surgeries, is why people still need the meds after surgery when the spot that causes the seizures is removed. Could anyone here in the group explain that to me, please?
I was once considering surgery, but as my mesial sclerosis is on the left temporal lobe, it was said to me that I had more to lose than to gain with such surgery, affecting my ability to memory and also speech. Was yours on the right or left temporal lobe?
Thank you once more.
Chris (@santosha)

Hi @santosha i too thought I would be able to get off all the meds seeing as the damaged spot was now removed. My family doctor gets all the information and explained that although I don’t have any seizures EEG (post surgery) still indicates a presence of activity so they keep me on meds. My guess is while the surgery removes all the sclerosis; the surgery itself leaves behind an imperfect area that could be responsible for future activity.
Regarding the meds: when this recurrence of seizures began (age 49). With each seizure (3 over 3 month period), the neurologist upped my tegretol levels. I was seizure free for 6 months prior to my surgery. All that to say, I was and still am taking the highest level I’ve ever taken. But, and this is a surprise to me, my mental clarity, memory improvements and mental processes speed happened despite the meds. Which proved to me the meds, while they are at first taken feel doping, I believe I became accustomed to them and they proved not to be the mental detriment I thought they were.

@restisaweapon
Thank you so much for this explanation. I am so happy that the surgery has brought improvement to your life :-).
I imagine your sclerosis was on the right side of the temporal lobe, correct?
Would you say that your adaptation to Tegretol improved after surgery? Did you have many side effects when taking taking Tegretol before surgery and have they eased or disappeared after the surgery? I have taken Tegretol. It stopped my partial seizures at that time, but the side-effects were terrible and my body had not adapted.
Have a nice weekend!
Chris (@santosha)

Hi All,
To those of you who went through surgery to remove a sclerosis that was causing the seizures. Are you also still on a AED after the surgery? How has surgery improved your life? How?
Thank you for the sharing.
Chris (@santosha)

Good question @santosha
After my surgery I experienced dramatic improvements as I’ve described above. However, when I reported these seemingly miraculous changes to my surgeon the team (surgeon and neurologist) responded with concern that something might be going wrong. They spoke with my wife asking if I appeared Manic. Then moved my follow up appointment to 2 weeks from 3 months. When I went to the appointment they told me they have never had anyone report mental improvements that lasted longer than a month. 3 months later I went to my last follow. He said we can’t say why they happened but wished me the best for my continued recovery. That was over 17 years ago.
So I figured that I can’t have been the only one to have this experience and that’s why I posted on Connect.