Author: Darren Long

A blog about me, my meds, my brain surgeries, my hospital stays, my doctor visits, my life... la la la...

VNS

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This Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) was always thought by me as just a “second choice” if the first operation doesn’t work out. No biggie. But I’ve also been looking into this VNS as I just did for the brain surgery. now, I know these are usually extreme cases from people, but still….

Surgery risks
Surgical complications with vagus nerve stimulation are rare and are similar to the dangers of having other types of surgery. They include:

  • Pain where the cut (incision) is made to implant the device
  • Infection
  • Incision scarring
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Vocal cord paralysis, which is usually temporary, but can be permanent

And then…

Side effects after surgery
Some of the side effects and health problems associated with vagus nerve stimulation can include:

  • Voice changes
  • Hoarseness
  • Throat pain
  • Cough
  • Headache
  • Chest pain
  • Breathing problems, especially during exercise
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Abdominal pain or nausea
  • Tingling or prickling of the skin

For most people, side effects are tolerable. They may lessen over time, but some side effects may be bothersome for as long as you use vagus nerve stimulation. Adjusting the electrical impulses can help minimize these effects. If side effects are intolerable, the device can be shut off temporarily or permanently.

Now, I’ve also seen a VLOG on YouTube from a guy that has extreme epilepsy and has gotten this implant. He talks about how after his implant his implant that he had to quit his job at McDonalds. I can see this. If he has a hard time communicating, it’s impossible to work. Oh, and he says it’s REAL hard to sleep at first. Having a jolt of electricity sent to your brain every few minutes can be very awaking. Again, I have questions and this isn’t a sure thing. Just a “second” thing.

Temporal Lobe Resection

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I think today that I’m going to come across and explain this operation the best I can. The Temporal Lobe Resection is the removal of a portion of the temporal lobe, or temporal lobectomy. These brain structures play an important role in the generation or propagation of the majority of temporal lobe seizures. In most cases, a modest portion of the brain measuring about 2 inches long is removed. The temporal lobes are important in memory, emotion and language comprehension. However, the extensive tests that I have been doing ensure that removal of the area causing seizures will hopefully not disrupt any of these critical functions.

Risks? Permanent complications associated with temporal lobe resection surgery are very low. Mortality is less than 0.1% and permanent unexpected morbidity less then 1%. In dominant hemisphere resections, temporary language difficulties are seen in 10% of the cases although these usually resolve. An upper quadrantanopsia (partial upper peripheral vision loss) is expected in large temporal resections, but seen in less than 25% of the patients. Memory impairment rarely occurs from temporal lobectomies because of extensive preoperative testing of language and memory functions.

Success Rates? Seizure control in temporal lobectomy varies:

  • 60%-70% of patients are free of seizures that impair consciousness or cause abnormal movements, but some still experience auras
  • 20%-25% of patients have some seizures but are significantly improved (greater than 85% reduction of complex partial and tonic-clonic seizures)
  • 10%-15% of patients have no worthwhile improvement

Therefore, over 85% of patients enjoy a marked improvement in seizure control. Most of them need less medication after surgery. Approximately 25% of those who are seizure-free eventually can discontinue antiepileptic drugs.

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What does all this mean? It’s scary. Do I feel confident and want to go through with it? Yes.

But, it’s still not a sure thing as to if I qualify. The damage would be best (or I should say “safest”?) if the bruise on the brain is completely on the left side. But from what the tests have shown so far, there might be slightly on the right. I don’t exactly know what that means, but I guess it’s not a good thing as far as a surgery goes.

Medicine

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Having problems with the increase of my Lamictal. Made my right arm shake like crazy, even worse than it does. I could barely hold the money from the cash register while working at Walmart. So, I’m going back to where I was with it and then getting on a new med called Zonegran. I read up on that. Drowsy… Well, that is explaining all my meds already. Few other side effects I’ll have to pay attention to.

Cognitive Testing Results

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I have the results of the cognitive testing that I finished a couple weeks ago. Very long and informative evaluation. Many “big words”. Not too many things that I didn’t already know. My memory sucks. Compared to the last time I’ve had this evaluation, this one came out slightly lower. Could be because of age, or other things. They say that I should be living my life the way I already do by having a structured routine and relying on a smartphone to aid in my daily activities.

The evaluation goes on and on for 8 pages, but that’s the main things in a nut-shell.

Next??

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One of the next tests is Functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) is an MRI procedure that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.