Where Are We: Memory

Now comes immediate, and pretend-distraught, word from Patsy's granddaughter that Patsy's great-granddaughter was not about to cry; but was instead playing peek-a-boo. Let's pretend that suspicious peek-a-boo story is true. We'll pretend Abby is not actually thinking:
How long must I suffer the inane ministrations of this photographer? If someone doesn't save me I am going to cry!

If you think peek-a-boo, and you look at how Abby is calling upon all of her focus and concentration, you can almost see the wheels turning inside her brain. In a similar fashion, as Mom works to overcome short-term memory difficulties, you can almost see the wheels trying to turn in her brain.

Dad has described Mom, as best he could, as "not herself." Well-intentioned as that is, it's not my preferred description.
The wonderful thing about Mom is she is totally herself! She has her typical personality, she has her typical sense of humor. She cracks jokes. She remembers everybody, and everything, which happened before her hemorrage. She is wonderful to hang out and visit with.

In a good sign, Mom also remembers much of what has happened since her hemorrage. This is maybe an indication that her brain is slowly repairing the damaged parts. She remembers who visited through the July 4th weekend, and what they talked about. Mom can detail everything about her potential shift in therapy emphasis, even after she had only heard those details one time. Mom's nurse says, even when Mom was having the most trouble with hydro-cephalus, she amazingly knew the medications she was taking, and stayed mostly on top of her dosages.

Yet, other instances of short term memory leave Mom grasping for answers. To give one example, Mom has trouble remembering where she is: Baylor Rehab; Dallas, Texas. It could be that the little pinprick of brain which stores this info is traumatized. It could be that Mom is less motivated, or less interested, in remembering this info(compared to family chit-chat, or medication groupings).

A good sign is that Mom is starting to zero in on where she is. When asked, she will answer - Shakespeare-style: "That is the question." She will then begin to focus - looking somewhat like Abby in the above pic. Her focus and memory is improving! Ago, Mom variously thought she was in Louisiana, Waco, or Florida, etc. She variously thought she was in different kinds of buildings. Now, she remembers she is in either Ft. Worth, or Dallas - though she might have trouble pinpointing which. I'm confident the therapists consider this a sign that Mom's brain is slowly building synapse connections, to compensate for the traumatized areas.

Mom usually has her building location pinned down to one of three places: Cook's Hospital(where she did her early nursing), Harris Methodist(where she stayed for weeks as a patient), or "Baylor Rehab" ("They don't want us just to call it 'Baylor'"). For some time, she has been using that exact order to guess which building she was in. When she is informed that she is not in Cook's; and she is informed that she is not in Harris; you can see a relieved, understanding expression come over her face. She is now sure she is at Baylor Rehab! And that this grueling ordeal of questions can abate, for a while.