What is Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), traumatic injuries to the brain, also called intracranial injury, or simply head injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes brain damage. TBI can resu...
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Confusion and Memory Loss
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Today makes a month since my 19 year old fiance was involved in a four-wheeler accident that left him with a brain injury. He is doing extremely well physically; he can walk, talk, and use the bathroom on his own. He was moved out of the hospital 1 1/2 weeks ago into a nursing home, and today they are doing a swallowing test on him to see if he can eat on his own, and hopefully he will be home within the next week. The trach was taken out 2 days ago. He doesn't seem to remember much, though. He doesn't know his favorite game, Halo on the Xbox and he played it for hours a day. Names come and go, but he knows faces. For example, he knows that I am "his girl," but he cannot seem to call me by my name. Whenever they ask him to write anything down it's my name and the other day he wrote down my last name; however, he could not recall it today. I was just wondering if this is normal and if it is just a stage in recovery, and hopefully if it will eventually pass?
Thank you. Posted on 08/14/09, 10:08 am |
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my hubby was this way and it did gradually get better. But it can take a long time. His accident was 9 months ago and he still gets confused sometimes and his memory is still not so great. But it is 100s of times better than those first few months.
He did some weird things though. You have to have a thick skin and realize it is nothing personal. He called me his old fiances name some. And sometimes he called me the "other Jenni" as if there were two of me. He also called me his sister's name and "Gina". He even called me his friend's name, "Joe" who is bald and has tattoos. Who knows? Their minds are just all over the place. We've been married 16 years, so you imagine I was pretty upset. It gradually went away though. I kept waiting for him to "snap out of it", but it didn't really happen that way. It sort of just gradually got better. He still has trouble remembering what happened yesterday (especially if it is not important to him) and he gets some of his past memories from before the accident mixed up. He also makes things up when he can't remember. He is easily disoriented and distracted, which can cause him to forget what he is doing or where he is. All of this is getting better though and I believe it will all continue to gradually subside. 
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My husband has been diagnosed with a memory processing disorder since his accident. He doesn't remember though...I was there when the Dr. showed us the report. It may not be the same with your husband, but my husband's is likely permanent. He has some connections that were just broken and the inefficient "work around" that his brain healed with causes him to substitute "facts" that aren't true, liberally throughout his thinking. The hardest part is that he is absolutely sure this stuff is true, because it came from his memory. Even in the face of tangible proof, he thinks someone has the time and energy to mess with his head, and make up evidence to "make him look bad" rather than think there might be something going on with his brain.
I agree, you have to have a thick skin, not take it personally and you have to think that he is not doing it on purpose (even tho it can seem like he is at times). He probably won't ever "snap out of it", but with memory training and things like that, can become better and more efficient thinker. Mine so oblivious/paranoid/type A, always right, even to the detriment of himself, he refuses to believe it is a problem, so refuses any kind of help or treatment. Mine is 4.5 years out from his accident. He got hit by a car when he was on his bicycle, landed on his head and his helmet cracked through in 4 places.
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