Two weeks post-op

It has been two weeks and two days since my dad’s surgery. He had an aneurysm in his frontal lobe that was coiled. Last week they restricted visitors for two days because he was not sleeping. I went up to see him on Friday, but for about 5 minutes only. He seemed really excited to see me. During those five minutes, we briefly chatted, but it our converstaion didn’t make sense. He then fell back asleep. My aunt went up Saturday night and sat with him for an hour. During her time, they watched a movie and he was trying to predict what was going to happen in the end and it actually made a little sense. I went up to see him on Sunday and my cousin came with me. I only expected to stay for a few minutes because that is how it had been going. When we got up there, he was very alert and chatty. The nurse asked him who I was and he knew I was his middle daughter and he knew I was pregnant. He also knew I was due in March. It took him a while to remember who my cousin was, but as our visit continued, he remembered and also knew her brothers name. Our visit lasted about an hour and he still wasn’t ready for us to leave. He was talking so much, but none of it made any sense. It was great to talk to him, but it is also scary because his short term memory is still lost (didn’t know what he ate for breakfast) and nothing he says makes real sense. We wonder if this will last forever or if it is just temporary. He is still in NICU, but hopefully getting moved to med/surg by the end of this week, if they can take the drain out.

Hi Kim
In the experience that I had with my own family member who had a rupture in the frontal lobes, this sounds very familiar. With time these things will get better as the the neurosurgeon told us at the time the brain is spasming which causes the weird conversations. To this day my sister still struggles with short term memory loss. It is not as bad, but is a challenge

Good luck

My dad is going home today! He did not qualify for inpatient rehab, but will be doing outpatient rehab for months probably. The dr. said they don’t think my dad will ever work again and they are unsure how much he will relearn. Us kids are very nervous about him going home because he has a lot of habits that are dangerous (drinking, chopping wood, etc). The dr told us that the way my dad is currently may be the way it is forever. I feel so positive that he will improve and sometimes after talking to the dr I feel I should not have so much hope that things will get better. We live two hours away from him and the thought that he may never be able to drive again scares us.