Hi,
I am new here, I am usually on Braintalk, but theres not alot of posting on TBI. Well, heres my story, my mom age 70 has had hydrocephalus for the past 25 years, 10 years without a shunt and then re shunted in 2004 with a programmable shunt, anyway her Neurosurgeon felt that the shunt needed to be adjusted last Oct of 2007, I told him that the last adjustment led to a subdural hematoma, but he said that he would get a cat scan in 1 month. Well, sadly I found my mom unconscious Dec. 4 the week of her cat scan and she had a major subdural hemorrhages, the Dr said that I could just let her die or they could take her to surgery and she had still only a small chance of survival, after 5 days in a coma she woke up, she had no use of her left arm, but by Jan 1 she could wave with it, so she went to rehab, and progressed slowly to being able to walk the full length of the hallway with her walker or by placing her hands on the therapists shoulders as he rolled backwards down the hall on a chair. Her trach was removed in February, and she was doing pretty well, but still had some memory issues. She went to a nursing home rehab next, but got septic after only 2 weeks there, after that it took her a long time to recover from that and her Left arm she barely used again, and her balance was terrible, it was wobbly before, but noway like this.
Mom went home in May with 24 hour care, and she has good days and bad, but her balance has never gotten back to the way it was, I know she was on a drug Amantadine for awhile and then taken off. I have had her shunt checked for a malfunction and it is working just fine. Sooo, now we are going to go to a Dr Neurologist that specializes in ataxia, and see what he says. This is a long long road, and mom progressed so well until she got sick. Has anyone had any similar experiences or have any advice?

Smitty

HI, sorry to hear about your mother. It is really too hard for me to comment on. I guess that all she can do is keep trying with the help of an occupational therapist. It must be very frustrating for your mum. I took amantadine for a while but it didn't appear to help me - though at the time I was very anti drug and aggro so it didn't have a chance! Keep us posted.

Lynlee