As my dad said a few blogs ago, many patients suffer from post traumatic amnesia after a brain injury, which includes having poor short term memory. We've definitely seen this with my mom, but we are also seeing it slowly improve. One of the most obvious ways we see it is in her awareness of the date...she's been keeping track of time and the date each day. Last night, when John and I were visiting with my mom, she started putting us on the spot and asking us questions that she wanted to know the answers to, but would never normally get away with asking us! We answered her - maybe assuming that she wouldn't remember what we had said the next day. But tonight, when she and I were visiting, she told me that she thinks she embarrassed John with some of her questions. I was like, "Wow, well at least you remember doing that! Normally you wouldn't have even remembered asking us all those things." She smiled a very sneaky and pleased smile.
Something that my mom has been having issues with on and off is her vision. She often holds one of her eyes shut, she will tell us that she is seeing double, and when reaching for something, she will often grab for it in the wrong location. During OT, she was doing many of these things, so her therapist suggested an eye patch until my mom can get a vision consultation tomorrow. The patch draws a lot of attention...AND a lot of pirate jokes. It's cute though, and my mom plays the part. She yelled "Ahoy Matey!" to her physical therapist today when they were meeting. We're hoping to get this eye thing sorted out soon because, although it's apparently very common for patients following a brain injury, she definitely performs better in therapy when she can see well (and who wouldn't). Plus, I don't know how many more pirate jokes I can take ;-)
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