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@santosha Strangely enough, my body felt fine and for obvious reasons I had a headache. Not severe. Internaly, I could hear a squishy sound that was very strange. It took me a while to realize it was air that eventually went away. I had a friend stay with me for safety and asked her to pay particular attention to my balance and speech. She never noticed anything out of the ordinary. The hard part was forcing myself to stay down because my body felt fine. I intentionally slowed down mentally. It was frustrating because I couldn't concentrate or focus on more than one thing at a time. I learned to think of my brain as a muscle. When I felt confused or mentally frustrated, I forced myself to stop what I was doing and shut down for a while. That means resting or doing mindless tasks. I'm back at work now with a job that requires a lot of organizing and keeping multiple balls in the air at one time. I take a lot of breaks and use FMLA. Full cognitive and mental function recovery from this surgery can take 6 months. Be patient and FORCE yourself to stop when you feel tired or overwhelmed. Keep a note pad with you at all times. It will keep you sane if you let it be your "remind me" friend. I am very anxious to see the upload results this Friday when the 1st programming is done.

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Replies to "@santosha Strangely enough, my body felt fine and for obvious reasons I had a headache. Not..."

Hello @absentsenior
Thank you so much for sharing this with such detail — it is incredibly helpful for others who may be considering an RNS or any other implant for epilepsy!
I'm glad you had a trusted friend by your side during those early days after the implant, and that the squishy sound from the air resolved on its own.
Your tip to treat your brain as a muscle that needs rest when fatigued really resonates, and so does the notepad idea. Such a simple tool, and one that has already helped me a lot. To be patient with oneself is so valuable, something I learned the hard way in my own epilepsy journey.
It's wonderful to hear you are already back at work! Reading your post, I got quite curious about what kind of work you do — would you mind sharing?
Wishing you all the best this Friday for your first programming session — please do come back and let me know how it goes! 🙂
Chris