regarding the spasms

[Guest Vtak]

hey

my mom had a SAH 9 days ago with a temporary ventriculostomy and a surgical clip the same day.

She is fine when it comes to her movements and speech, but she is not completely alert and oriented to place and situation. She thinks she is at home and when i show up at the hospital she has asked if i was in my room. She also doesn't remember the surgery or the fact that she had a SAH.

She does talk in full properly formed sentences though and shows "her feelings". She does remember all the names and events that have occured otherwise. She remembers our last family vacation 2-3 mths ago and the fact that my dad and her were going on some job interviews in the midwest recently as they planned to move up north.

But again, she is just all over the place when it comes to her memory and what she talks about.... I was there today when the technician did a doppler and she still has a lot of spasms with continued frontal lobe ischemia/inflammation on the recent CTs.

Does this get better? I mean will she be back to thinking properly and to making more sense? I understand these things take time but I just need to know from any family members or SAHers here if they had the same issues and how long it took them to get their cognition back.

Thanks a lot

Varun

[Annie]

Dear Varun,

I am sorry that you are in the stress of a loved one recovering from SAH. I'm afraid that I'm not able to answer your question, as mine was not one that was that extensive. I hope one of our other contributors will jump in with some insight. I do want to ask, however, if you are in the US? Since you mentioned the Midwest, that sounds US to me. As far as I know I'm the only "Yank" on this site so far. Where are you?

Annie

[Guest Vtak]

tucson, arizona

[Louise]

Hi Varun

Like Annie I’m not able to answer your questions either except to say I was kind of like that too, my husband told me long time after mine, I still have no memory at all of being in hospital, the op/recovery in 6 years I have never had even a flicker of a memory of that time.

I too had spasms in my arms/leg I think it was.

My memory was all over the place too, I was convinced that one of my Aunties was in the next room it wasn’t her this was due to a combination of what happened to me & the meds I was getting.

Oh yeh, it takes time to recover the type of sah I had was pretty bad so my recover has taken a long time but everyone is different, the best thing family members can do is stay cool be positive because each day its getting better whither you notice it or not, at one point when I went to the rehab hospital I could actually feel the healing in the brain boy that was weird..

Take care

Louise.

[Karen]

Hi Varun.

It seems to be quite common to be a bit "spaced out" after the SAH. There are bits of my hospital time that I just can't remember. When you think about the cocktail of drugs that you're given as well...it's probably no wonder. Sometimes, I didn't know what time of day it was when I woke up from one of my very frequent sleeps.....I didn't no whether I'd had visitors etc.... when I did have visitors, the sheer effort of trying to stay awake, let alone hold a conversation was phenomenal....all I wanted to do was sleep...

I suppose if your Mom's suffering spasms as well, it's something extra that she's having to cope with. I didn't have any brain spasms.....not that I can remember anyway! I did have a seizure in hospital after my coiling, but that was down to low sodium levels......but boy, did I feel poorly at that stage. It didn't take much to upset the apple cart and set back my recovery.

Sometimes, I've wondered whether the brain just shuts off a little, in order to recover .... I still have short term memory problems....it's much better now and I've learned to adapt.....but for the first 3 months post SAH, it was awful ...... My Husband had to deal with making Doctors appointments, form filling, I couldn't even hold a telephone conversation where it involved giving any information......my brain was muddled and I would forget my telephone number, address, my age etc. It's almost like you have to re-learn all of these things.

Take care,

Love Karen x

[Skippy]

Hi Varun

When I had my SAH I was immediately put onto a drug called Nimopodine for 21 days after to prevent brain spasms. It's supposed to keep the blood pressure low so that the fluid around the brain can digest/eject the blood that bled into it - so I was told.

As for the confusion etc like Karen I was asleep on and off for about 5 days as this meant I was laid doen - I was told not to sit up for 24 hurs anyway. I was talking 36 tablets a day to cope with the pain and the spasms etc and again like Karen, can't really remember much about being taken to hospital and the operation or things after it.

My memory is no where near as good as it used to be - I was so organised before this and now have difficulty in remembering what I did two hours ago but I can remember what I did yesterday :? Small logical things too are hard to remember - like I put my daughters sponsor money in her school bag on Saturday yet I don't remember doing it even though its the kind of logical thing I would do.

I think the brain has the ability to shut out what it doesn't understand or doesn't think you need to know!!!!

Take care and try to stay strong.

Sami xx

[Annie]

YES, Rossi! Those are just the kind of gaps I experience too. It really does feel like your brain just shuts down for a moment.

[Louise]

Yes I agree that the brain shuts off what it dosn't want to know.

The first 5 weeks I spent in hospital I dont remember, there has never been even a flash of any of it. The brain just switched off to it, & I'm glad that it did.

Take care

Louise.x