My surgery resulted in memory/processing improvements. Anyone else?
Has anyone had epilepsy surgery that resulted in mental improvements?
I have had Complex temporal lobe epilepsy with seizures beginning when I was about 13 years old. Doctors believed the epilepsy was created at 1 year of age when I suffered a high fever that climaxed with a seizure as I was rushed to hospital.
Medication changes over the years settled on Tegretol CR. I was largely controlled but didn't always take the medication well enough to be completely seizure free. At 22 years old I almost had the brain surgery to correct the condition. But on the way to the operating room stopped the surgery out of fear (It was 1981 and brain surgery seemed too scary to me). So I told the Dr. that I was going to be diligent about taking the medication and if that didn't work I would return.
Decades past with few seizures until I was 49 (2006). I started having seizures again and each visit to the hospital the doctor increased my medication level. He also suggested looking into the surgery which I knew would be an option so I said yes this time.
May 25, 2006 I had the surgery. Now my life was blessed with an amazing wife who for 28 years covered my mental deficits. I would describe myself as absent minded, very forgetful, easily distracted. Which sometimes made life harder for my wife.
Four days after the surgery I went home to recover. About 2 weeks after surgery I could go out for a few hours before needing to lay down. We were invited to our neighbors birthday party so I rested during the day and that evening we went. At this party of strangers (we didn't know the neighbor well), I was uncharacteristically chatty. I would usually sit at a party quiet because conversations were difficult to follow and stay focused on. After an hour of chatty conversation I looked around the room and realized I could name all of the people in the room (strangers before today).
In the coming days it became apparent that I had mental improvements. My thought processing speed seemed 2 or 3 times faster and I now had a memory power I had never had. It's as if I was smarter. I even figured out why. I wrote the surgeon and email saying: Is it possible, when you cut out this damaged spot of my brain, you cut out the cause of a life-long mental interruption?
Follow-up visits for the surgery were done and the doctor said they have never had anyone report mental improvements that lasted longer than a month. Mine have never left.
So it begs the question. Has anyone else experienced mental improvements after epilepsy brain surgery?
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Hi Don, Good Afternoon
Those are special surprises and meetings we have in life. Many times we say "what a coincidence", but I do believe it is more than that, it is God hands in action, putting some people in our road. Curiosity, do you continue having contact with this doctor?
I am just back home, after one month in Portugal. This time, I and my husband also had a special surprise with some people. Arriving at the airport, my husband and another man helped an old lady with the luggage. After helping this old lady, they started to talk with one another, discovering he is the cousin of two friends of my husband. What a coincidence, but it does not stop there. I and my husband then met him together with his wife in Portugal for two other times. In one of those meetings, we discovered that he has worked with my father here in São Paulo, Brazil in his early adulthood. This man I am talking about is a French man (my father is French) who has lived his youth and great part of his adulthood in São Paulo, Brazil. He together with his wife live already for some time in Portugal. I and his wife have made a great connection with thoughts and life philosophy that are very much alike. For sure, this is not just a coincidence, but God's hands.
Thank you for sharing this special moment you have lived with us.
Have a great week 🙂
Chris (@santosha)
I'm here looking to get information post surgery. I've been an emotional Rollercoaster and extra chatty but I'm only a month out. I hear from my surgeon that it would calm down in a couple weeks but still hasn't. I'm not sure about improved memory because meds are still the same and it hasn't been long. This is my third and the biggest, but after my first two small ones my neuropsychology test shows that my memory and cognitive function was better and my seizures were less frequent and intense but still there.
Any improvements are worth celebrating! I too still take the same amount of meds. So that just proved to me that meds were not involved in my feeling absent minded ( I did believe that the meds were responsible)
I believe you’re on track to feeling better. God bless, Don