Doris-
That makes sense- that's all left-brainy stuff. I'm going to get lost all
the time if they scoop out a part of my right temporal lobe, which makes
sense because I have a horrible sense of direction as it is.
Now here's a shout out to parents who are contemplating surgery for little
kids. I don't like to dispense medical advice around here, because I'm not a
frigging doctor, so keep my lack of an MD in mind. I tried to go to med
school and got derailed when an ER faxed the DMV and I suddenly couldn't get
to class anymore. (I'm sure a lot of people here understand how dreams can
get crushed by the stupidest things.)
But I'll repeat what I've heard many neurologists say, and what I did pick
up during med school: IF you've decided you're going to do this, then try to
hurry up and get it done.
Your little kid's brain (compared to yours, probably) is still like
Play-Doh- different abilities are still being laid down in different parts.
So if you're going to start Play-ing with it, do it while it's still Doh.
Surgeons like to slice and dice kiddie brains because they don't have to
worry as much. If you remove parts before they get assigned functions, the
parts you leave in there will be more likely to assume responsibility for
whatever bizarre stuff the missing parts would normally have handled. You
want to catch that process while it's still going on.
(This is why little kids are always explaining technology to their parents-
little pieces of their brain pick up weird computer abilities during
childhood. *In general* kids also recover from brain trauma better than
their parents do in car accidents or surgeries or whatever, for the same
reason. And they'll probably pick the computer abilities right back up
again.)
Surgery is still a crap shoot- every kid is going to recover differently and
some don't do as well as others. But, *in general*, the younger a brain
surgery patient is, the better the recovery.
People see brain tissue coming out during the surgery and are scared. "Oh no
that's going to make my kid stupid!" Not necessarily- stupid seems to be
more about quality, not quantity. Smart kids have smart brain tissue.
Plus, brains have two sides. If you remove a chunk from one side that
normally handles something important, like talking, the kid might toss the
talking stuff to the matching giblets on the other side, and will speak as
an adult with their right brain. Kids are better at juggling left-right
while developing their abilities. Not like you... after your adolescence,
these processes are [mostly] complete. Doing surgery is more like opening
the hood of a car and reaching in for a part to take out, hoping you'll grab
the AC or something.
-Jason
On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 8:09 AM, DorisY <dorisellen@nc.
> Hi Mark,
> Many others here can relate to what you are experiencing with the
> memory difficulty. My difficulty with this began post left temporal
> surgery about 12 years ago. I can remember a lot from my youth, but
> not current things like names and events too. I have to take a super
> amount of notes and plan things like chores for the day.
> Good luck handling this.
> Doris
>
> --- In epilepsy@yahoogroup
> >
> > Does anyone else in the group have troule with their memory. I mean,
> REALLY bad trouble. I can hear something one minute and forget it the next.
> I suspect that's that's the reason I had to drop-out of college.
> >
> > Mark
> >
>
>
>
>
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