Steve and most other people,
When I had my left temporal lobectomy in '96,I was told of there being a
possibility of verbal-memory loss;I wish it was mentioned ahead of
that time,before the day of surgery.I'd never heard of verbal-memory loss and
just said OK.I think it's probably the doctors legal responsibility to warn you
of this.If someone knows(or shown a video/described in detail) before
the surgery the person might decide not to go ahead with it.After my operation I
experienced the change,before surgery it was always my usual memory.After it I
was asked a question and I thought I could answer that I'd tried over and over
to find it the answer,then I attempted to speak it out,once found in
memory.It wasn't produced by my voice-box(I new the word,but wasn't able to say
it).The person who asked the question had already walked away to ask someone
else.
Maybe that may be verbal-memory loss.
It's alot easier to get the question in writting,I always forget the
question/name ect..I don't need to ask the person to repeat the question
again.Then to answer it,by writting it you give yourself a chance to rewrite or
change it till your answer looks like it would have before the operation.Put it
in writting.Memory doesn't delete itself at that rate in a normal person,until
they have brain surgery,unless they are 80-90 y.o..Unsuccessful surgery
didn't lower rate of seizures.Fourteen years later I still have seizures w/o
reduction,but my verbal-memory was successfully reduced.
Diagnosed in '74,until '96 surgery my memory was OK,seizures still but;at least
I have less memory and the doctor did warn me.I wonder if anyone isn't told or
warned of that.
Timothy Baldwin
________________________________
From: Steve <stephenpales@yahoo.com>
To: epilepsy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, August 31, 2010 2:28:06 AM
Subject: [epilepsy] Re: Short term memory post surgery
Hi Doris,
What you asked is what I ask myself all the time also (smile). My surgery was 3
years 10 months ago. I'm 52 years old, since surgery have been asking so many
people my age who don't have epilepsy about their memories and allot say their
memories have gotten worse. So then I always ask myself how much of my poorer
memory is caused by age, how much is surgery?
My poorer memory has severely affected my job! It began affecting my job
immediately after I came back to work from surgery. My responsibilities at work
have totally changed to where my memory is used less. I'm pretty much doing only
repetitious work in the warehouse. I know I'm still at work simply because I've
been there 23 years and they know how much I care about what I do. I know if I
was hired today at this job, I wouldn't be able to hold it long. At work I'm not
the same kind of person I used to be. My closest friend has epilepsy and her
surgery has totally affected her memory also, big time! Her surgery was about as
long ago as yours. It is so fricken frustrating in this technical world we all
have to live in these days.
Doris, if you would like to keep in touch by email, maybe we can help each other
in some way? You can email me at stephenpales@yahoo.com One thing that works
with me is trying to keep my life so simple, so basic, staying away from
learning new technical things. Learning simple things most times gets way to
very frustrating!!! And most often stay away from learning new things. I freak
out trying to learn new things. Call me a quitter or call me simply trying to
stay away from the stress of way to often failing to learn or remember new
imformation. For me I'm very glad to have had my surgery because so far I'm
seizure free. Before surgery my cognitive levels where extremely poor just like
after surgery. A year after surgery I asked to have another neuropsychological
evaluation just like I did before surgery. The results where the same. But, my
question is, if results where so poor before surgery in cognitive areas, could
they actually have gotten worse? All I can do now is deal with it as it is now.
And like I said, I keep life as simple and basic as I can staying away from
areas my poor memory will affect life. Take care, keep a smile on your face!
Steve
--- In epilepsy@yahoogroups.com, "DorisY" <dorisellen@...> wrote:
>
> I had left temporal about 13 years ago, and difficulty with short term memory
>is definately occuring. I was wondering if any others who also had the surgery
>might notice something similar. It is apprehensive since it makes me wonder how
>much worse is this going to get and is there anything I can do to change this.
>Your experience or opinion would be meaningful. Thanks.
> Doris
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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