Help!

[Ftmz]

Hello everyone,It has been a year since my mother's illness. My mother had herpes encephalitis herpes type 2. Currently, my mother's physical condition is good, but she still has short-term memory problems. The problem now is that she constantly asks repetitive questions. I don't know if there is a solution to this problem? Will my mother's recovery stop at this point or is there still hope for her to get better?

[sleepless68]

Hi I was advised the 2 year point is how you are going to be.I had same as your mum October 2020 and although my memory won t ever be the same I would say it was 75 percent now. I learned strategies to cope and support my memory.If you help your mum to develop strategies it helps a lot.Stress makes mine worse.I m now the queen of lists and post it notes but I am fully functioning and working full time.Good luck with your mum.x

[Ftmz in reply to sleepless68]

Hello, thank you very much🩶 Can you tell me what I can do to improve her memory? Unfortunately, my mother doesn't want to admit that she has a memory problem. I tried to teach her to take notes, but she didn't really take to it

[HSE_Survivor]

My husband had a similar experience to you during the first year of my recovery . I was unaware how frequently I repeated myself in conversations . It wasn’t until I left the kitchen taps on and flooded the kitchen that I slightly understood the problem with my short term memory. My husband was given the following advice :

- Be patient. One year is still early days. You’ll have a better idea of how far her memory will improve by the end of the second year after diagnosis .

- have a white board in the kitchen with a tick list of ‘to -dos’ each day (I had instructions like: feed dog, let it out at noon) . You can write answers to common questions on the board, and contact details of your family.

- We used the alarm function of my iPhone to set reminders of things to do throughout the day

- The ‘Find My’ app on my iPhone allowed him to track me if I kept the phone with me when I first left the house to walk the dog .

My memory improved very gradually in the second year. I understood how bad my memory was then, and that’s when I began implementing daily reminders for myself . I still repeat myself occasionally, but I always say, ‘let me know if I’ve already told you this”.

I hope things improve for your mum this year, too. 🤞🏻

[Wygella]

I absolutely agree with comments here. Your mums memory will gradually improve and I found I was still improving after 2 years ( I’m well over 6 years now). Lists and phone reminders are still my friends and especially when stressed I do odd things like try and screw the biscuit lid on the wrong way. Previously I had a great memory so I think I was in denial at first. I don’t have any other tactics but my husband does sympathise!