after I saw Amanda in ICU on Wed. but she's going to be okay. She's off of life support and out of ICU. She still doesn't have any kidney function. When I left they were talking about a kidney transplant although she's no where near ready for that yet. She has leaps and bounds to go before she's well enough to undergo surgery. She's still doing dialysis almost daily and probably will unless they get her kidneys working. They still say it's a possibility. They worst part now is that she has lost a lof of memory. She's had 4 or 5 siezures. That combined with the morphine she's been on for over a week is what they say has caused it. They did a brain scan and she has several white spots on her brain. The doctor said over time the white spots will go away and she'll remember. He also said that if a year from now she still has some memory loss they will do further testing. She remembers her close family. There were a few people she didn't remember. I don't think she remembered me until she saw Kaitlyn. Well, I don't see her very much. I talk to her on the phone a lot but I don't physically see her. I don't know if she didn't remember me or not. I'm just going by the look I saw in her eyes. The sad part is that she doesn't remember being pregnant or having the baby. My mom is keeping the baby right now and my mom takes him over to the hospital for a few hours everyday now that shes out of ICU and Amanda just doesn't realize he's hers. Even when you tell her. She kind of looks at you like you're crazy. She loves the baby but there is just no motherly instinct there. When she talks to him she calls herself Amanda instead of mommy. My mom said yesterday she was calling herself mommy some. I don't know if she's starting to remember or if she's just doing it because she thinks thats what she's supposed to do. My brother is doing much better. He's still depressed but is so much better than when I first got there. He knows his wife is getting better but I think its the fact that she's still in the hospital combined with the fact that she doesn't know their child.
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
Does the doctor mean that they won't do anything for her memory until a year has passed? She can definitely get help NOW...and should. I am a speech pathologist and we do cognitive retraining with patients like this all the time. Many years ago I worked with a gal who had a stroke during childbirth and didn't have any memory of her pregnancy, the delivery, the baby...
The doctor should have already ordered a cognitive eval...if he hasn't you might want to request it on her behalf. I can't imagine waiting a year to see if things get better when she could benefit from treatment right now, especially when you're talking about a new mom that needs to bond with her baby.
Glad to hear that she's getting better, AND that you were able to get to them
How terribly sad. You see movies like this and never ever think it could happen to someone you know. Did your brother take any pictures right after birth with momma and baby together? If so show them to her.
Zoe, I'm so glad that things are progressing. Slowly is better than not at all, and that's at least something to be thankful for. How heartbreaking that she is having memory issues. I hope she makes a full recovery! It's good that she has such a good support system :) Thanks for keeping us updated, I have been thinking about your family a lot lately and I'm glad to hear that there is good news in light of it all. Take care of yourself!
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-The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all
Kula, they are not doing anything for her memory because the doctor is 99.9% sure that her memory will come back. Just over couple of weeks she's been there he can already see the white spots shrinking. She was on morphine for a week and a half, combine that with the white spots and he's saying thats the deal with the memory loss. The doctor expects her memory to be 100% on its own within 2 weeks or less. He did mention a cognitive eval. but he wants to wait a couple of weeks. He sees no reason why her memory won't return once the morphine is out of her system. He thinks the white spots on her brain could be causing a little bit of a factor but not much.
I just talked to my mom and Amanda does now remember being pregnant. She doesn't remember a lot of it or the later parts. My mom says she's very excited now. The doctor also just left and expects her memory to start getting better by the day now.
Also, the kidney doctor was very impressed with her kidneys during dialysis today. He said she put out a lot more urine during the treatment than she ever has. This is all very exciting news and seems to be getting much better!
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Saving just one dog won't save the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog. -Richard C. Call
So gald to hear that things are getting better! The meds likely have had a huge impact on her functioning, and as those begin to clear her system she should begin to do a lot better.
Personally, I'd still recommend the cognitive eval before she leaves the hospital anyway, only because of the seizures. A full eval will pick up on some higher level cognitive skills that wouldn't necessarily be apparent in a normal conversation with her, but will definitely affect her day to day functioning once she leaves the hospital and gets back to her activities of daily life.
Keep us updated, and know that you are all still in our thoughts and prayers!
Wow.
