Not waking up after surgery

[Jo0410]

Hi, my partner had a brain trauma about 12 days ago causing brain swelling and haemorrhage. He is based in Texas and me in the UK. Since the accident he has been in a head restraint with breathing tube and IV tube, seated up to help ease swelling. On Thursday his surgeon spent 9 hours operating on the head injury and was happy they had removed what was needed. It has been 36 hours so far and my boyfriend hasn't woken up. I can't get to a Texas but he has family around him so getting news through them. The doctor has simply told them it's up to my boyfriend to wake up now. Is this sort of normal that it might take days for him to reach a level of normal consciousness? I'm totally freaking out

[Hidden]

It can take ages for you to see an improvement. If he had broken his leg, you wouldn't expect him to run a marathon. Now think how much more complicated the brain is and how much longer it is going to take to get over this trauma. It is very early days yet. All the time he is asleep his brain is working hard to repair itself. Just keep doing what you are doing, his family will be doing their best - hopefully chatting to him, playing him music etc. It won't be long before they are reporting small improvements in his health and you can all start thinking of the next stage in his recovery.

Good luck.

[Jo0410 in reply to Hidden]

Ty exhausted wife that's a good way to look at it.

[cat3]

Jo, I'm sorry to hear of your boyfriend's brain injury. Brain surgery is a scary issue for none medical folk, but with present day (amazing) technology in the hands of skilled surgeons it's an everyday event.

Also, the brain is the only organ with its own intelligence and its approach to recovery is always sleep, sleep and more sleep.

As Jan has said, if you break a limb it doesn't strike you as odd that it needs to be immobilised for six weeks in a cast. We know that's not an option for the brain, so once the main injury is dealt with it simply shuts itself down while it heals.

What others see is a motionless loved one ; what they don't see is the imperceptible healing.

I hope you'll hear of more positive signs soon m'dear, but please remember that time is your partner's best friend right now........ ...................... Time=Healing.

Please keep up updated, and all best wishes for those positive signs soon. Cat x