Chp. 1 COMING SOON: Neurosurgeon Appointment 3/16/15

For those who may not know me, I wrote a brief blog titled, "A Brief Prologue" to give a quick overview on what I went through with cancer and some of the side-effects. It might help connect the dots on what this blog is all about. 

I’ve been feeling anxious the past week. My neurologist and neurosurgeon had a meeting this past Monday to talk about my case about controlling my seizure activity. My neurosurgeon’s office at the University of Utah Hospital called me Monday morning, after their meeting, to schedule an appointment with Dr. House to discuss options. I was surprised how fast they wanted to see me! I’m meeting with him this upcoming Monday, 3/16.

My neurologist, Dr. Afra, told me of a new brain surgery where they implant a device on the brain in hopes to stimulate the brain. It’s called Neuropace. It was recently approved to be used in the U.S. this past November. My seizures have reduced very little since I got the Vagus Nerve Stimulator device implanted nearly a year and a half ago, so I figured I could have them look into Neuropace simply out of curiosity. I basically left it at that so when I got the phone call for the appointment to see Dr. House a few weeks later, it shocked me a little bit because I nearly forgot about it!

When the possibility of another brain surgery is ever brought up, I get tense and nervous and I have flashbacks on waking up from the two previous brain surgeries being partially paralyzed, 50% blind, speech and reading impediments, and so on. After I think about all of that, why would I do it again? The difference between then and now is that I actually can decide to go through with the surgery or not.

The reason I’m actually considering surgery is for a few reasons. First, I’m on my 8^th anti-seizure medication. The medications help to a degree because if I didn’t have the medication, I’d be having grand-mal seizures all of the time. In the past 4 months I have had between 4-5 complex partial seizures each month and this week alone I have had 3. I’m grateful they’re not grand-mal seizures but none the less, they are still seizures. I’ve also thought about doing the surgery this year because I’ll be graduating with my associates in less than a month. I mention this because school wouldn’t be a hindrance. Another reason I’m considering it is because it might not be as invasive of a surgery like the others. I might be wrong, I’ll find out tomorrow. I mean, brain surgery is brain surgery but my assumption is that it wouldn’t take 14hrs or 6hrs like the other two did.

I’ll admit, I get impatient with these seizures at times. Usually, I can control myself but when they occur too much and too often, I do desire some type of change. We’ve all asked ourselves, “Why me?” Sometimes at least right? I get that way when I wake up from a seizure or when it causes me to be sick for the rest of the day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m almost always happy but these do get me down. Maybe it’s selfish of me but stuff like these seizures have been happening for the past 12 years and it would be very nice to get them more under control. Wish me luck! And I will let you know how the appointment goes tomorrow!