brain tumor epilepsy

[jungle66]

good day, as a mother of a 17 yr old boy who suffer brain tumor epilepsy is there any remedy for his desease? how about surgery is there is any posibility for him to recover, im so sorry i ask so many question, when the seizures come what should i do please do help . hoping for kind consideration

[spitfire2]

Forgot to ask: what do his seizures look like?  If his seizures are convulsive, do not hold him down or restrain him.  Do not try to force anything in his mouth, and make sure he does not accidentally hit anything.  He will not "swallow his tongue"--that is a complete misconception.  If there is something tight around his neck, loosen it, and make sure to try and turn him on his side when his seizure ends.  You must let his seizrue take its course. (generalized or secondary generlized seizrues)  If he freezes up or is unresponsive, looking like he is staring away, or has other symptoms like continual lip smacking, or seeming dazed out yet walking around, just let him be, and make sure he does not accidentally hit something  (this is a complex partial seizure) The seizure will pass its course.  He will be confused and tired for a while afterwards.  If the seizure lasts more than 5 minutes, though, call an ambulance, to avoid a fatality.

[spitfire2]

If your son's epilepsy is a result of his tumor, his epilepsy will most likely remain refractory, i.e. not controlled with medications.  Talk to your neurologist (epileptologists are much better...neurologists are pretty pathetic when it comes to epilepsy, unfortunately) about an inhospital surgical workup, find out if your son is a possible surgical candidate.  Continued seizures can lead to scarring of normal brain tissue and permanent memory problems, and the formation of new seizure focuses in the areas surrounding the tumor, i.e. a worsening of the seizures.  At that point, if you go in and only have the tumor removed, chances are his seizures will not be controlled.  That is what happened to me: I had a brain tumor, which was misdiagnosed for years as a lesion.  My seizures got worse and worse, impacting my life in every way, memory loss, inabilitiy to drive, work, live on my own, etc.etc.  I ended up being the one who pushed to have a surgical workup, and had to undergo a larger surgery, a left temporal lobectomy, versus just removing the tumor, which was in my left temporal lobe.  It was tricky, because no one had ever really associated this "lesion" (i.e. the misdiagnosed tumor) with my slowly worsening epilepsy (had refractory seizures for 13 yeras), and no one ever mentioned the word "tumor."  If I had had better luck, and someone had told me, "this abnormaility appearing on your MRI in the region from which your seizrues are coming might be a brain tumor," I would have had surgery immediately, and had the tumor removed.  Instead, because I had seizure activity for so many years, I had to have a larger resection, because seizure activity had spread due to scarring of tissue from yeras of chronic seizures despite multiple meds.  So talk to your doc about a surgical workup, if your son's epilepsy has been refractory for more than a year, or has not been controlled with more than one medication.  Refarctory epilepsy can have permanent impacts like memory loss, or even death.  It is no joke: take it from someone who's experienced it first hand.  Good luck to you.  ONe more note: epilepsy is not always easy to control with meds: it is an uphil trial and error battle, and not an easy one.  These meds can also have terriuble side effects, another downside.  Anyway, seizure control is essential--hope you find some answers.

[rumpled]

Do you mean that he has a brain tumor and suffer seizures as a result of the tumor? Or he had epilepsy and now has a brain tumor? Do you know the type of brain tumor? Do you have copies of any of the reports from the MRIs or CTs? Or the EEGs?

There are first aid protocols for the seizures - you should learn them - ask the nurses about what to do (don't put anything in his mouth) but basically you can leave him alone unless he vomits and then  you should turn him on the side so he does not choke.

Epilepsy has many medications to control it but it really depends on the type and location of the brain tumor for treatment of that.