I am almost a year post aneurysm coiling, and still experience memory issues. For the majority of my life, I’ve suffered from ADD. My memory was never great, and now it’s for sure gotten worse. It’s not that bad though, according to my friends and family. My name and word recollection is not as it used to be. Often, I cannot find the word I am trying to use during a conversation, and have to try to think of a different one, and it can get extremely frustrating. It feels like a new thing to me, but my family says it’s all in my head.
Since the brain is a muscle, I’m hoping this will improve over time. I wish you the best of luck and I’m sure you’ll memory will improve over time!
“Since the brain is a muscle…” ???
Ahhh, no, sorry the brain is not actually a muscle. The brain is an organ made up of billions of nerve cells. It can be trained like a muscle to strengthen and improve but unlike a muscle, it does not flex in the physical sense.
Merl is correct, brain isn’t a muscle but treat it as such with a lot of those brain games. Losing words, I have that in speech, sometimes writing, but not as bad, I was diagnosed with dysphasia, some call aphasia but it’s not quite the same. If you can get to a Speech Therapist, they can discover what it is that is holding you back and give you ways to improve it. When my family says things like “it’s all in your head”, I laugh and tell them I know where my brain is! But it’s their way of saying they are not having the same perceptions as you have. Don’t take offense, they’re trying to be kind and tell you what you notice is not noticeable to them. Kindly explain you need help to get to the level you want to be operating at, then ask your doctor yourself for a referral to a Speech Therapist.
I am now 2.5 years since my initial ruptures aneurysm and about 1.25 years since my 2nd surgery to better fix the first coiling. I notice that my speech is slowed and i have feeling of operating myself via remote control when i am recovering from a “spike”, that’s what i call the short duration very high intensity pain incidents i get still (note it used to be 20 times per hour, now down to 20 times a day or less). I also have memory issues with words and other learned tasks on occasion but then there are some that seem very much intact… Of the things I’ve forgotten i do not worry, people will remind me of important things, so i am just grateful for what i do remember. .
Good for you on all the mile markers, it’s not a road for the faint hearted! One of the tricks I was given by a Speech Therapist was to read out loud. When I find myself losing my words and there’s no apparent reason like excitement or exhaustion, I will read out loud to the dogs and it seems to help transfer to my speech. Excitement or exhaustion is a tell tale for me.
Hey Tracey,
No, I did not have an annie. My personal neuro story started with an MVA when I was a child. Now, there’s a bit of a debate on which came first in my situation, the mva or an underlaying brain tumour and I haven’t been able to get a straight answer to that one, but it wasn’t acknowledged for 20yrs. It was an emergency situation by the time it was acknowledged and has been a rollercoaster ever since.
You ask “I am still getting headache’s sharp pain on my temple. Is that normal?”
There can be so many variables to that question. What type of annie was it? Where in the brain was it? What sorts of treatment have you had? When did you have treatment? All of these can have an impact on recovery and although some dr’s have the opinion “We operated. We fixed”, ANY disturbance of the fine neuro-structures within the skull can have a MASSIVE impact on recovery. I’m often saying to members this is not a simple case of A+B=C but more A+B+C+D+E+… The brain is unlike any other organ in the body so trying to compare the recovery from a brain injury to any other injury is impossible.
I have found that over time some things have improved, but by the same accord, some things have not.
Hi, I had coiling almost 15 years ago. I started having memory issues right away. I still do. Trouble with people’s names, trouble with finding the right word, remembering things, how to spell simple words, I get lost. It’s awful. Doctors blow it off. It’s disheartening.
Speaking of memory issues, I was going to write something deeply insightful and amazingly helpful… but by the time I logged in I had forgotten what I was going to say…
azurelle
You have to laugh or you’ll end up crying - hang in there!
Thanks for this response. Over the past month my memory has made substantial improvements, specifically, over the past week after I took a few days off.
It seems that it’s easier for me to become mentally exhausted, but so long as I’m taking good care of myself, I appear to be functionally identical to the way I was before my operation.
I think you’re totally right regarding multi-tasking, thank you for this thoughtful response. I’ve been able to make things clear with my job where I’m doing less multi-tasking, and as I focus on one task at a time I find I’m fully capable.
Thanks for the note about Keppra – I’ve actually reduced my dose and I immediately saw an improvement in my symptoms. I think it was definitely impacting my short term memory being on a strong dosage, grateful I was able to taper down.
Have you seen your abilities change the further you are from your procedure? How far are you from your clipping or coiling?
Thanks!
Thanks for this response. My memory issues are resolving as well. The coping mechanisms have been very helpful, but even generally I see slow improvement. I also noticed the same as you – fine around the time of surgery, but things got worse after. They’re improving now, knock on wood…
I’ve noticed my stress and stress levels seem to impact my memory a lot, as you were saying. I realize sometimes if I’m annoyed or short tempered because of exhaustion those are the same days where my memory is completely unreliable, not sure if you’ve had that experience.
One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that my wife doesn’t seem to notice the difference between my good and bad days with my memory – can your husband notice? Maybe she’s giving me too much credit, but I feel some days I can hardly function and she assumes I’m doing alright…
Thanks for specifically mentioning the medicine bottle, I’ve started doing this after your post!
Hi,
I just wanted to say that my husband definitely agrees that my overall ability to function is highly sleep-dependent. I wear a Fit-bit now and it records the times you wake up and the number of restless episodes you have in a night, as well as the number of hours of quality sleep. I won’t say it is perfect, but it does provide some insight when you are having a bad day.
I am 68 years old with a 10mm anni that ruptured in 2014. I still have attention deficit issues, memory issues, but at my age it is difficult to know what to attribute to the anni.
Memory issues are critical for me as well. And I don’t drive anymore because I scared myself so badly when I couldn’t react to changes in driving conditions…traffic causes a sort of panic attack.
I put reminders on my phone for EVERYTHING! Taking medicines, vitamins, taking my blood pressure, shopping needs, events and appointments, and even reminders to eat (I forget sometimes). If I lost my phone I’d probably die. haha
This morning I got up from my desk to get coffee, and three times walked into the kitchen not knowing what I was there to do. It is frustrating.
I was not this way before the aneurysm ruptured. I had been VERY organized, and critical thinking and analysis were part of my daily work activities. Now I am on disability, plagued by extreme headaches and always a bit loopy from the medications I am taking. But still lucky to be alive and functioning as well as I do.
I think my husband does and doesn’t notice. Sometimes I have trouble finding words, and that would be the only real thing he could notice. I have to say, "what is the word for…? or what is his name? " I say that a lot more now.
I’d say a couple of weeks ago when I originally replied my memory was great. This past 2 weeks I’ve been under a lot of stress working a lot and parent’s visiting, and not sleeping that well. My memory isn’t horrible, but I’m having troubles finding words. I was thinking of buying a paper dictionary and just going through it each night to see if that would help.
Also when my parents were visiting, I didn’t exactly stutter, but sometimes my words didn’t come out smoothly. I never had that problem before either. But, all in all, we are lucky to be here the way we are.
Good lucky Sparky. Have you looked into diet triggers for headaches? I have cut out citrus and that has made a big difference for me. Also I can eat chocolate, but not cocoa. To eat chocolate, I buy Baker’s baking chocolate and just eat the bar. There must be something in the processing. Once I got serious about diet triggers, I’ve been a lot better. Also avoid processed meats and preservatives, nitrates, nitrites, sorbates. Also some teas. Dried fruits. Some nuts. Pickled foods. Aged cheeses. The list takes out a lot of popular foods, but really made a difference for me. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9648-headaches-and-food
