MRI required

[Allisoninoz]

All very interesting. I was diagnosed with adult onset epilepsy in 2004 after a couple of seizures (where I fell down and was out to it) and several nocturnal seizures within about six months. It was all really weird and scary and out of the blue. My neurologist (who used to be a cardiologist) put me on some anti-convulsants and did various tests. An MRI showed a very small scar area on my left temporal lobe so I was diagnosed with left temporal lobe epilepsy. It has little impact on my life apart from irritating absence seizures where I 'zone' out for 60 or so seconds. If I'm with somebody who doesn't know, they would just thing I was being rude or distracted. My neurologist was never convinced it wasn't something to do with my valve problem or with childhood surgery when something might have broken off and travelled to the brain. They put in a loop recorder device for several months but that showed nothing. Anyway ... I had my Ross Procedure on 22 Feb (three weeks ago) and turned out it was a unicuspid valve with an ulcerated large area of calcification (1cm). The surgeon told me it could have been reponsible for 'micro embolisation' - so, basically, little bits could have been breaking off for years and giving me mini-strokes. I'm still on my anti-epilepsy drugs and need to be for some time. My lovely neurologist rang the other day to discuss the surgery and said he'd like to see me in a few months to discuss the possibility of weaning off the epilepsy drugs (depending, of course, if I have any absences over the next few weeks).
It's very interesting that there are other people with neurological conditions that might be related.
Anyway, that's my two cents' worth.
Cheers, Alli