Help / advice required
 

At age 11 my sister was in a car accident and as a result was left permanently brain damaged. Shes able to walk and talk to about the level of 11/12yo but has a short memory span. She has three shunts in her head at the moment, all placed over 10 years ago. She is otherwise healthy.

My problem is that over the past few weeks she has been going through moments where she seems totally out of it, as in she is very very slow moving and it takes a lot of calling to her to bring her back to functioning, its like going into a deep day dream but its happening very frequently. It seems to happen mostly when she has been taken out of her routine i.e. on holidays or trips. When shes back in her normal routine shes fine, back to herself.

I was just wondering if this could have anything to do with the shunts? Could they be draining less frequently due to possibly less activity when shes not at "work" 3 days a week?

Or could this be more of a mental thing? Shes 35 and has been in a 3 day a week centre for 10+ years so its not a new routine or anything.

Thanks for any feedback x

Routine changes affected my daughter's draining before her current setup. But routine changes could also arise from allergies, sleep issues, etc... (really not qualified to comment on anything being a mental thing, only that shunts not working quite right can mess all sorts of mental processes AND some postictal behavior can look very strange, people with hydro/tbi have a higher incidence of seizures than the general population). Can you talk to her surgeon's office about what your concerns are? Can you go with her to her next checkups (regular doc/surgeon)? Document/chart what you observe, it helps docs focus on the observed issues and not blow things off.