I got the VNS implant. This might sound stupid, but there are a lot of helpful videos posted by people who've had the surgery on YouTube. Watching the videos--the ones that aren't company propaganda--helped me decide. You can even find a video of someone performing the surgery. I don't think the VNS has done much for me, and it does have some unpleasant side effects (very hoarse voice, get out of breath when I exercise, you can see it in my neck and chest), but there are a lot of scientific studies that suggest it gets more effective over time. So I'm holding out hope. It's a gamble, but I didn't have many options left, either. It is impt to remember that it's just an adjunct therapy--you'll still have to take your meds, and don't get your hopes up to be seizure-free--most people aren't. When it works, VNS lessens the amount and severity of your seizures, but you'll probably still have them. The best scientific article I found on VNS was this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21838505
This is just the abstract. I'd be happy to email you the pdf of the whole article, if you'd like--but you'd have to trust me with your email. You could probably also buy the article. It takes a whole bunch of all the other random studies that have been done on the effectiveness of VNS and condenses them into one place using some really solid analysis. It's much better than reading 20 piecemeal studies, some of which were waaaaay too small or included one of the company men as the co-author.

I have had the VNS for over a decade, and i find that I am able to use it to stop a good majority of my seizures due to the fact that I can usually feel them coming on with my aura and then use the magnet to give a stronger stimulus to the vagus nerve. I then do deep breathing and think to myself that I don't need to have a seizure. I have stopped multiple seizures from occurring this way.

The surgery is not that bad. When they do it they will keep you over night after the surgery and let you go home the next morning. The device is put in the upper part of the left chest and if you have a good surgeon you can hardly see where it was placed. And only then if your looking hard to find it.The surgeon will fish the wire under your skin up to your neck so there will be no scare or any sight where the wire is. He will make an incision in the nech where he will wrap the wire around the Vagus Nerve It has really helped me in cutting down on the number of seizures I have. But the bad part is it can make you horres when it comes on. You may not evev be able to talk until it goes off. But haven a cut back on seizures it's worth it to me. The other bad part is you can't have an MRI because of the wires.Other than that it was worth it for me.

After I did all the research it came down to a quality of life. That is how I made my decision

Like you I had no choice so I decided to get the implant. It effected my occasionally effects my voice but I feel mush better. It is a tough call land it is a personal decision . All I can say is it worked for me