Cognitive Fatigue

[drbjr]

I had a right parietal benign meningioma removed at the end of June of this year. It was discovered after my wife took me to the emergency room for mental confusion. Physical recovery went slowly but well. Physically I am feeling great, back to long walks and playing with my GrandDaughter. I returned to work 6 weeks ago to a job that requires a fair amount of number crunching, managing a large group of people and trouble shooting. I had 3 weeks of 3 days a week but have returned to full force the last few weeks. There was a lot of stuff waiting for me to tackle and I'm finding myself coming home and sitting staring into space and sleeping 10 hours a day. I've become very forgetful and losing track of my thoughts in mid-sentence. I'm a little frustrated as it seems I'm going backwards in my progress.

I know it can take time to fully heal but worrying I may not be able to perform the job I've had for 28 years. Has anyone else had difficulty settling back in? My neurosurgeon was fantastic but follow up communications have been extremely difficult.

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Hi drbjr,

Firstly, I would just like to let you know that I think that you are doing great! I run a small bookkeeping business and it took me quite some time to actually feel myself again cognitively post-op. My workload was piling up and I started back at work fairly quickly also. I can relate to your feelings of complete exhaustion. I think that is part of the recovery process. Ten years post-op, I still experience days of complete exhaustion. I felt it was the anti-seizure meds that were interfering with my brain more so. After 6 months post-op, I spoke with my Neurosurgeon about the meds and we had the dosage reduced and the type of med changed. I started to feel somewhat better from that point on.

I hope this helps.

Take care

[Bluesunflower2]

hi, I had a left frontoparietal meningioma removed in May 2021. I had physical symptoms post surgery and very very significant fatigue. I went back to work part time in a very slow return to work schedule and started full time in Jan 2022. I was so tired I felt like I was slipping backwards, especially after work. I went back to my Dr and we modified my hours by a little bit (3 short days at 6 hours, 2 full days at 8 hours) until July.

You are still very early in your recovery! Give yourself time to heal if you can. I still find I need a lot more sleep than I used to and it takes me a longer time to recover from a busy day, especially one that involves a lot of talking or multi-tasking. I supervise a team of 22 people.

I’m quite lucky as I have good benefits, a very supportive employer and a lot of paid sick time, which I used to modify my hours. I also delegated some “busy work” that drained my attention but only really needed me to supervise, not actually do the work.

The other thing that really helps me is exercise. When I was more exhausted I found 30 min of vigorous exercise (stair climber, exercise bike) really helped me get through the day. I don’t have time for that now, so I make sure to get outside for a walk at lunch (30 min if I can, but minimum 5) and that I exercise in the morning before work.

I hope you can get some more rest. Fatigue is hard to manage and I find I have to stay on top of it, and rest before I’m too tired if I want to function well.