Hello everyone! My Dad was diagnosed with a 2 cm brain aneurysm on his brain stem back in May. He had the clipping surgery on 7/7/10. He is now at home. He is really struggling with short-term memory loss and confusion. My Mom is caring for him and one of their biggest obstacles is that he is unable to sleep at night. He gets up in the middle of the night thinking it is the morning. My mom has tried posting notes all over the bedroom to remind him to look at the clock to check the time. Is this normal due to the short-term memory loss? We are just worried because we know he needs rest to aid his recovery.
Thanks and it's great to know that we are not alone!
Hey Brooke. I know that when I had my surgery I had some problems sleeping the first few weeks at home. It seemed to mostly be during the time that I was coming off of the pain medicine. I would wake up and just be wide awake at 2am and even looking at the clock it was hard to believe that it wasn’t time to be awake. I asked my neurosurgeon if it was ok to take an over the counter sleep aid and he was fine with it. That helped me while I was coming off the pain meds. You may want to have your parents talk to the neurosurgeon and find out if there is any kind of sleep medicine that he could take that could help. Also, not sure if maybe the sleep problems might have to do with the location of the surgery. My clipping surgery site was on the left side of my head. If your Dad’s surgical site is on the back of his head or the side of his body that he normally slept on before, it may be causing him problems in getting used to having to sleep another way. I also used to sleep on my left side and have had to get used to sleeping on my back or right side instead and 6 months later, it still causes me problems. (and once I’m frustrated about it, I just can’t get back to sleep). I would suggest that they talk to the neurosurgeon or neurologist about it.