I Have Epilepsy
Went back up to Stanford for some final appointments before the surgery. The first was with the surgeon's assistant. Mainly to go over the procedures of the surgery and to see if we had any questions. We spoke with him for about 20 minutes, then headed on to the next appointment, which was with the anesthesiologist.
She basically explained what her job was, and that I would be “asleep” for about three hours, as she put it. Very nice woman, seemed trustworthy.
The third appointment was with one of my original doctors. While there, I received a package, which included more information about the chip. She also told me more about the way to record the seizures and send them back to Stanford.
She showed me what she called a “wand”. To me, it looked like the hand talk that pilots use to talk to the airport towers with, only with a longer handle. The whole contraption is about 8 inches long. With that, I am to record my activities of the day. To do this, I hover the wand over the chip. Not touching the head, but close enough that it can read the chip properly. The information gets transferred over to basically a “laptop computer” that they give me. (unfortunately, I can’t do anything else with it.) Once a week, I send that back to Stanford, so that they can see my brain activity for the last week. Interesting set up.
The first month is basically an “educational month”. It’s so that they chip can basically learn about me, just what happens to me, and what I need. Once that month is over, I will go back to Stanford and they will turn on the stimulators that will hopefully detect and stop the seizures.
The timing of the success with this is unknown. It could be a few months, it could be a year. There is the possibility I may not be completely seizure free, but the numbers and intensity would go down considerable. There’s a chance it may not even work at all. It’s all up in the air. I’ll be staying on the meds for now, and eventually, I might be able to stop completely. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all goes.
All I can hope is that it makes things better, even if I still end up experiencing a few seizures from time to time. Fingers crossed.
The surgery is on February 8th. I was told that it could be as early as 5:00 am. I have a friend who has offered us a place to stay. I’m hoping to go up Thursday afternoon/ evening, so I can be closer to Stanford Hospital. He has had medical care there and knows what they are all about and how well they work with their patients.
They tell me that if all goes well, I can come home the next day. If they feel they need to keep an eye on me, they’ll keep me for another night. While they say I can go back to work within a couple of day, but not to do anything strenuous...especially no lifting of heavy items. So, customers will be asked to help with that unless I have some help in the office, which I’m pretty sure I will.
The only bummer about all this that I have to take myself off my ibuprofen, so I’m sure I’ll be hurting in the meantime. lol Oh the price we pay!! I’m pretty sure it’ll be worth it though.
Until next time.
She basically explained what her job was, and that I would be “asleep” for about three hours, as she put it. Very nice woman, seemed trustworthy.
The third appointment was with one of my original doctors. While there, I received a package, which included more information about the chip. She also told me more about the way to record the seizures and send them back to Stanford.
She showed me what she called a “wand”. To me, it looked like the hand talk that pilots use to talk to the airport towers with, only with a longer handle. The whole contraption is about 8 inches long. With that, I am to record my activities of the day. To do this, I hover the wand over the chip. Not touching the head, but close enough that it can read the chip properly. The information gets transferred over to basically a “laptop computer” that they give me. (unfortunately, I can’t do anything else with it.) Once a week, I send that back to Stanford, so that they can see my brain activity for the last week. Interesting set up.
The first month is basically an “educational month”. It’s so that they chip can basically learn about me, just what happens to me, and what I need. Once that month is over, I will go back to Stanford and they will turn on the stimulators that will hopefully detect and stop the seizures.
The timing of the success with this is unknown. It could be a few months, it could be a year. There is the possibility I may not be completely seizure free, but the numbers and intensity would go down considerable. There’s a chance it may not even work at all. It’s all up in the air. I’ll be staying on the meds for now, and eventually, I might be able to stop completely. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all goes.
All I can hope is that it makes things better, even if I still end up experiencing a few seizures from time to time. Fingers crossed.
The surgery is on February 8th. I was told that it could be as early as 5:00 am. I have a friend who has offered us a place to stay. I’m hoping to go up Thursday afternoon/ evening, so I can be closer to Stanford Hospital. He has had medical care there and knows what they are all about and how well they work with their patients.
They tell me that if all goes well, I can come home the next day. If they feel they need to keep an eye on me, they’ll keep me for another night. While they say I can go back to work within a couple of day, but not to do anything strenuous...especially no lifting of heavy items. So, customers will be asked to help with that unless I have some help in the office, which I’m pretty sure I will.
The only bummer about all this that I have to take myself off my ibuprofen, so I’m sure I’ll be hurting in the meantime. lol Oh the price we pay!! I’m pretty sure it’ll be worth it though.
Until next time.
