My name is David, and my son Eddie had surgery for temporal lobe epilepsy about five years ago. Eddie always had problems at school, the teachers used to say he just wasn’t concentrating, and not learning properly, but it was never really diagnosed as epilepsy until finally, when he was about twenty, and I took him to see a specialist neurologist. Then it was diagnosed, and he was put on medication for it. This didn’t help much, so over the next few years he tried a whole heap of different epilepsy medication, but for some reason they didn’t work and he was having a lot of little seizures. I am a cane farmer, and Eddie worked along with me, but there were about three days in every week he had so many seizures he couldn’t function.

 

Finally we went down to Brisbane, and saw a neuro-surgeon, who said lets do an MRI and see where the problem is coming from and if we can do surgery to remove it.
The MRI showed scarring on his temporal lobe, so after a lot of tests, including a WADA test, Eddie had the surgery.

 

He recovered really quickly, was talking immediately, and had no problems or complications.  He has not had a seizure since, he is back working with me on the farm, driving, and has almost completely come off all his epilepsy medication.  He is still a bit shy and lacking in confidence, probably because of the years he lost having seizures, but he’s gradually getting it all back. We are so pleased we  were able to have the surgery, life is good again.