Hi,

I'd been a passive member of this group. A brief history of
my illness :

Born in 1966, had a prolonged febrile convulsion at 6 months
and recurrent complex partial seizures since age 6. Seizures
generally under control till age 20. Then there was a
complete remission for 5 years and drugs were reduced to
sub-therapeutic levels. At age 25, seizures resurfaced and
ever since, it was a history of ever-increasing drugs and
drug dosages, but the seizures were always on the winning
side. A CT scan and a battery of tests showed nothing
abnormal. Finally an MRI done few years ago showed left
sided mesial temporal sclerosis - my left hippocampus had
atrophy, with high signal in T2 weighted coronal images. I
continued with drug trials for 3 more years and was finally
told to get evaluated for ATL surgery. The video EEG test
confirmed that seizures were all originating on the left
side. The WADA test revealed that for memory, I was right
sided, and for language, I was left sided.

On 01 Dec 2003, I underwent ATL surgery with intra-operative
electro-corticography and was discharged 7 days later. Now
its been 3 1/2 months and I've been completely seizure-free
since. In the few months before surgery, I averaged about 6
to 8 complex partials per month and a higher number of
simple partials per month. Ever since surgery, I have not
had even one simple partial (the so called auras) or complex
partial !. The only deficit I'm having post-op is the
occasional word-finding difficulty (especially with names of
people).

Last week, I underwent the 3 month post-op follow-up. They
did a repeat EEG and some speech and psychological tests
which all turned out normal. The speech therapist advised my
husband that when I encounter a word-finding difficulty, he
should give the first alphabet of the word as a clue, from
which I should build-on and assured that it would improve in
an year (but I feel this is just a minor trade-off for the
absolute seizure control and the confidence I'm having now).
Moreover before surgery I used to get headaches twice in a
week for no reason and since surgery, I haven't had it ever
(frankly I don't understand why). I was also asked to start
tapering one drug (Frisium) in steps of 5 mg once every two
months and stop finally (I take 30 mg now) and to continue
status-quo with the other drug Tegretol CR (1000 mg/day). My
next appointment is in December, one year from surgery.

Thanks for listening,

Elizabeth
from Cochin, India