Memory Loss/Concentration

[ScottWit28]

I had an acoustic neuroma removed at the end of 2009. Since then I feel like have had difficulty articulating my thoughts. Another component that I feel like I am noticing more is overall memory loss and difficulty concentrating and staying focused on tasks. Is this common?

[anan88]

Hello Scott-thank you for saying this. It has happened to me in the last c.3 years (surgery & Gamma early 2011). If you read up about TBI you will see parallels, but post-AN issues much less severe.The US seems much further forward, although many(most?) health "professionals"(!) everywhere seem unwilling to acknowledge. However, for some of us it is very real. I feel that we're under the "care" of a skull surgeon who does their job with the physical tumour, then doesn't follow up the quality of life issues some have, rather than having someone more broadly-focused following us up. If your MRI shows the tumour has gone/shrunk/stopped growing, then the consultant says "fine, nothing more to do here". Google: The TBI Coach (US site) and watch her Youtube videos; Interactive Metronome; brain nutrition; classical music (esp.Mozart) for cognition; read Norman Doidge's 2 books "The Brain's Way of Healing" and "How the Brain Heals Itself", Michael Merzenich's site and his "Brain HQ". That will all get you started and you'll see how much can be done by you! I really pushed, was tested, "mild cognitive impairment" diagnosed, was told not to expect anything from brain-training..... How wrong that is! Don't listen to anybody who says you can't change it for the better. You absolutely can. Again, thanks for bringing this up.

[Kristyll]

I felt the same but much later realised it was all the stress, nothing worse than that to stop concentration etc

[drdeanbellavia]

I have heard from many young and old AN patients that they have mental confusion and seeming memory loss before and after their AN surgery. I also had that problem around the time of my AN Gamma knife surgery in 2002; even to this day.

The problem stems from an inability of the cerebellum to maintain your somatosensory system since it is getting bogus (or little) information from the affected inner ear. Before I figured out how to resolve this problem I would feel the heat coming off of the back of my head near my cerebellum; the tinnitus seemed to exacerbate the memory problem. It's all about "brain noise" from sporadic neurons firing. You may have noticed as I have that when your balance is off, so is your memory.

I discovered in 2002 that I had to retrain (reset) my cerebellum by exercising the three planes of the semicircular canals individually to reduce their bogus information: it worked! At first I did the exercises a couple of times a day for a month or two, which helped to reduce the balance and memory problems. I then did it weekly for a few months and now I only need to do it monthly to help my memory and balance problems. Unfortunately, this did not reduce the tinnitus, which seems to be a neural feedback loop in the temporal lobes of the brain.

Doing the exercises, eating blueberries and avoiding alcohol seems to help the so-called memory loss (actually the access to the memories is lost; the memories are always there; going through the "alphabet" seems to give better access). If you would like help with this problem go to the following link on my website:

thebioengineeringco.com/ind...

I wish you well in your endeavors.

[Highwycombe]

A bit like brain fog .