I am very concerned about my mom’s memory loss since her surgery. She had a massive aneurysm in the frontal lobe of her brain almost 7 months ago & she still has severe short term memory loss. She cannot remember anything that goes on around her past the activity or experience itself. While she is engaged in something, she is aware of what she is doing or what is going on around her; but once the moment passes she will completely forget. She can remember it most times after she is reminded or given some details. It is like she cannot pull the memory up on her own, but then it comes back to her when she has enough information to think about it. It is heartbreaking to watch her go through this & I feel completely helpless because I do not know how to help her to get better. I am scared that her memory will not become strong enough for her to fully enjoy life. She gets very depressed & constantly talks about how useless she is. She wants to go back to work so badly because she has worked since she was 13 yrs old.
I would really appreciate any feedback or information that may relate to her experience. Thank you in advance.
Hi,
My mother had the same thing happen to her… she slowly regained some of her memory back a little at a time, it took time, she went through therapy, and actually lived in a group home for people with head trauma(s) for a short while so she could regain function of how to get back into the world to remember how to function to do noramal activities of daily living. She never fully regained her memory still to this day, and was not able to return to work she was put on disability due to her accident, but for the most part her memory is “pretty well”.
She lives with my familly now I care for her, she can not live alone, but she has momnets of memory loss, of course it is normal, each person is different depending, and she seems to forget more recent activities and remembers her past better, funny how that works…
But nevertheless, she has regained whom we are, which she forgot completley- she can remember alot now, she does need some memory “jogging” but that is normal, I know it is difficult, but hopefully over time your mother will to regain most of her’s as well.
Brain trauma is a hard thing to deal with, for her very hard to see that life will change as well, and work, bing so dependant, especially for someone whom has worked for so many years and being so able to do so, it is hard to “let go” of this… It is a struggle, just be there for her, try to remind her as best you can, simple things, and give it time.
My prayers are with you both.
God bless.
Well put by Jos Thomas. It is true that everyone is different… different effects, different healing times, just different. I know how difficult it can be. As a survivor, I also have short term memory loss. It is from 2 burst aneurysms 5 months ago. It took my daughter telling me about 5 times what had happened for me to retain it, but I still don’t remember the actual event. I’ve been trying to figure out how long short term is, but I still haven’t figured it out! Don’t stress out (as best you can) and just be there for her, love her and she will “feel” that more powerfully than anything else! If you’re worried, trust me she can feel that and then because of that, she will feel like a “burden”, but that is misplaced. My sister (who is taking care of me) told me to get over that burden crap! lol… that’s what it took for me. . It’s frustrating to not remember, frustrating to not be independent, just frustrating! Hope this helps a little. You’re welcome to ask me more questions if you have any. Good luck to you! Kristen