Epilepsy & Seizures Support Group

This is very suspicious. Any kind of brain surgery is a gamble and most of the doctors do not have experience or a good success rate.

Thank you, MBWilkins for your honesty! I am facing brain surgery (depending on how testing goes) and I am not looking forward to it, and probably will refuse it.

I do not advocate surgery for anyone except as a last resort. These so called specialists do not even know the cause of the majority of seizures. The hospital is a dangerous place. Do not be someones experiment

It is UNTRUE that brain surgery is not a good alternative for people with intractable seizures. They do INTENSIVE testing prior to surgery to discover if you are even a candidate. No, it is not something to consider if your seizures are well controlled. But for people whose seizures are uncontrollable by other means it can be a life changing procedure.

YES you have to go to an hospital with a epilepsy clinic and a Dr that specializes in this area of practice. Yes you should try other means first. Yes you have to have all the tests done. Yes you have to be a well informed patient-But that is true of ANY surgery.

I have already had one type of brain surgery for another condition and I would be in a life of hell without it. All surgeries carry a certain amount of risk-even so called "routine" surgeries. Many people have been given their lives back with epilepsy surgery when no other treatment was successful.

i had brain surgery 5 yrs. ago after doing a lot of tests. it starts on the left temporal lobe right where my speech and memory areas are, then goes up to the front of the brain. they did'nt mess with the speech and memory area part on the side, but they did cut out some of the front part of the brain, but that did'nt help me AT ALL. in fact, for a while, my seizures were harder then normal. i recomend the V.N.S. system.

Eightball,

They were unable to remove the effected portion of your brain because that would effect your language and speech ability--that does not mean that surgery is not a viable answer for those people where the seizures are on the opposite side of the brain then their language and speech centers.

I think the decision to have or not to have surgery is a personal one and it also depends on the severity of the seizure disorder...
My son has so many seizures a week that it is affecting the quality of his life. He is going into the hospital on Feb 4 to see if he can have surgery. What kind of a mom would I be if I didn't give him every chance possible to have a better life????? My son is not a guinea pig and he is not someone's experiment!!! I have educated myself about what treatment options are avaiable and his neurosurgeon has been doing brain surgery for epilepsy for 25 years!! Just like everything, we have the responsibility to inform ourselves and then to trust those with more experience and education. And above all else, to trust in the Good Lord. Thanks Brave for sharing your information.

I also had surgery at UVA on May 9, 94 and have been seizure free since that day. My surgeon was Dr. Law and my neurogist was Dr. Bertram. They gave me my life back!

I just wanted to say congrats to brave.