Short term memory loss following craniotomy

[mizcathi]

My son had a craniotomy to remove a colloid cysts of the third ventricle and acute hydrocephalus 4 weeks ago tomorrow. It was an emergency surgery and the Surgeon did not expect him to come out of it. My son is 31 years old and was symptomatic for several years, including dimentia, halluciations and delusions. He would seem normal for weeks, then have an episode that would send the family looking for answers for weeks.

Right now he is focused on recovering longterm memories and reconstructing his life. He is walking, talking, has a good sense of humor, but does have some short term memory loss. He has issues with time, what day it is after a nap, for example. He can usually remember what he had for lunch that day, for example, and it is obvious he has some memories since he's been home that reconstruct our activities.

He hasn't showered in over a week and this is of concern for me. I don't get the sense that he can concentrate long enough to follow through. He was better at maintaining personal hygiene right after the got home. The other day I observed him looking in the mirror and deciding to shave and brush his teeth, but a shower seemed to much. I'm not sure if it's an energy problem as he took frequent walks that particular day. He is quite fatiqued after a high energy day and will sleep through most of it.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Cat

[Shown]

Welcome to Braintalk, I am sorry you had to find our family but really glad you did. My husband deals with short term problems. You are right about following through with what he is doin, alot of time I have to remind him that he was headed to take a shower. Our main issue is eating, I work all day and he just doesnt remember to eat. His lowest weight has been 139 and that is low for a 5' 11" male.

There are several things you can do to help him, try to remember that when you say something to him that goes into short term, so you will learm that you will be repeating yourself alot. It is hard and really difficult however you can help him adjust.

I will give you a couple of example of things we have gone through, he went on a new medicine and he would not remember to take it, so every day at 2 I would call him until that one day he told me he had already taken his medicine. You see with my help he moved it from his short term to his long term. He is really good now about making little list if there are things I leave for him to do, now this is very difficult because he actually freats over it until it is done, repeating the task over and over again, man does that get annoying. But that is the secret no matter how annoyed I get, I must always remember he didnt ask for this nor does he want to be like that. His problem has taught me patience I never thought I possessed.

It will never be easier for you to watch, however you will be able to handle this, I know this because you came looking for moral support. Use this site, visit regularly, the people here are great and can be of trememdous comfort on those days when you just cannt go on no longer. You can go on and you will go on.

Go to the gaming department and look for memory games, Nintendo DS (the hand held thingy) has a great mind game.

Just remember your brain is like the spark plugs in a car and one of his sparkies is misfiring, it sucks but honey you are not alone as you can see by this forum, there are alot of folks out there to help you, as the caregiver and your son.

Wishing you the best!

Shown