New diagnosis - has anyone had an awake craniotomy?

I am due to have an awake craniotomy.

I was diagnosis with a brain tumor to left temporal lobe (affects memory, speech, language comprehension).

I was wondering if anyone has been through an craniotomy and the affects afterwards that followed. My mental health is already affected with receiving this news at 27. And I am feeling low because of the emotions it is causing my family, feel upset and hopeless.

I am scared that I am going to wake up and not be able to cope with the amount affects it will have on my quality of life. As I work as a nurse and I won't be able to return to work, if speech, memory, comprehension of language is affected.

Well wishes

Phoebe 

  • Hi Phoebe,

    This has been on the telly and it's still available on iPlayer. "Surgeons: at the edge of life" series 2. Just Google "craniotomy BBC".

    I had a tumour excised from my left parietal lobe. Took me six months to recover, and a further six before I stopped getting "aha! that's working again!" moments, but I'm fine now with a hole in my head.

    Hope all goes well for you.

    kind regards,
    Steve

  • I had brain surgery where I had an implant put into the middle of the brain whilst I was awake. its completely fine - there are no nerves in the brain so no pain. What's weird is the drilling with a hand drill into the head to make the hole for the electrodes they were going to place in the centre of the brain. It just a weird and funny feeling But when they went to place the electrodes I thought they would be very careful and weave them to their destination. How wrong was I. They said brace yourself and they shot them straight through to the centre of the brain. Again no pain whatsoever. I was kept awake so check they hadnt destroyed certain parts and checked by holding up cards with objects on them which I had to read out. Also if your language goes slurred