Hey guys,

I had my final doctors meeting on Tuesday, this one with my Neuropsychologist. I guess the best place to start is with the good news. My visual memory (memorizing pictures, lists of words off of a paper, etc.) is in the 95th percentile according to my age group and education level. My verbal memory (repeating back things word-for-word as best as possible that were read to me) is in the 93rd percentile. The one item of bad news (sort of) was that my Psych Exam also showed that I had elevated levels of anxiety. But to me this is a “Captain Obvious” situation, who wouldn’t be a little scared going into brain surgery?

Let’s do a short recap: I have left Frontal Lobe Epilepsy with a possibility of activity in the left Temporal Lobe, or close to it. In the last 5 months i’ve had an 24-hour EEG monitoring session (2 1/2 days), had my case reviewed by my hospitals’ Neurological board, several visits with my Neurologists, a Neuropsych Examination, a WADA test performed, pre-op tests performed, and now am cleared to go into surgery for intercranial EEG monitoring on July 24th. I leave today for a short vacation, come back on Tuesday, then Thursday morning I check in to get prepped for surgery.

I don’t know if this will be my last update until after the surgery, I may do one Wednesday to put out how things are going through my mind the night before one of the biggest weeks of my life. And hopefully I will continue to write and keep you updated post-surgery!

Sincerely,

GWAB