Hey Chelsea93. My name is Shawn. I am a Professional Nurse in the neurology field as well as a person with epilepsy myself. I have had epilepsy for over 22 years now and just recently, September 23, 2008, was told where my seizures were originating. My seizures start in my left temporal lobe as well. The only difference with mine and yours is that your basis is scar tissue and my basis is a smaller hippocampus on my left temporal lobe. I can maybe be a big help since I work with people who have surgery on this area of the brain alot, as well the VERY LARGE amount of research  I have done and the neurologists and neurosurgeons I work with. I can tell you some of the risks are slurry speech, loss of short-termed-memory and a slight chance to lose long-termed memory. I am sure you know the basic risks as with other surgeries (infection, etc). I can say that with all the people we see go through the surgery, I have witnessed less than 1% of the patients having significant memory loss or long-termed effects (and most were elders).  Nearly all the patients go home within two days of the surgery. We at least keep them over night just to watch for inflammation and infection. I know nearly all the neurosurgeons and neurologists tell me that the prime age for the surgery is from the ages of 13 to 25. One thing we have found out though is that the longer you sit and tolerate the epilepsy, the higher chance there is to have more brain damage due to more seizures and more time your brain is oxygen deprived. Luckily I am finally geting the chance for surgery, and I hope the same comes for you.

My daughter just had left temp. lobe surgery in March.She did great and has not had a seizure since. She did not have too have much hair shaved. She was only in the hospital 2 days. We were very scared at first, but she did so well. It has changed her life for the better. She is 26 now and has had sz for approx. 10 yrs. She has just started to be able to drive again. Good luck, I hope if you have the surgery, it goes as well as hers.