Hi
My husband will be completing his 1st year of ADEM attack on 13th May 2019. He has recovered very well physically but his intelligence part is still remaining. He used to work at a very senior position in MNC and now he is not able to perform simple executive tasks. His typing/reading/writing skills are quite better now but still he is not able to solve simple puzzles , or make excel sheets/ presentation . Has anyone else faced the same issue ? Is there a recovery from this ? Will he ever be able to perform simple office tasks leave about complex stuff.
Sometimes I feel depressed as according to the neurologist here he is recovered now but I wont say it a recovery till he is of an average IQ.
Hi Nidhi, I’m post 4 years ADEM now. I have lesion in frontal & para lobe, pons & lumbar. Took me 2.5 years to recover as best I could & finally felt like my head had popped out of the confusing bubble. Everyday I spent 2 hours doing Neuroplasticity. Can be anything, learn, read, do something new everyday but keep at it. As the myelin is damaged the brain will do it’s best to repair but in adults not much or thin repair. Kids have a better recovery with repair & sometimes their lesions disappear. Neuroplasticity can help rewire new pathways. I had a neuropsych assessment done & found I couldn’t do puzzles, objects either. It showed the brain was working but the information was getting ‘stuck’, slowed down or was confused & required prompting. Don’t be disheartened too much, he’s doing the best he can & so are you. I cut work hours back, did some volunteer work, worked on recovery & my extreme exhaustion & mindset improved. Still unable to do what I did before but I’m happy with my progress, about 90%. You will both find a new kind of normal & be comfortable with it. Sadly it’s patience & time. Best wishes!
Thanks a lot Natalie. It gives me hope to hear that you are almost fully recovered. Thats a big morale boost for me. We have 2 small kids and that is a lot of responsibility.
Plz dont mind but I have to ask you this, Are you a regular employee now and able to take care of your finances/bills etc ?
Actually he looks and behaves quite normally so everyone around including his parents think that he is just being lethargic and long illness has made him demotivated that is why he is not able to work. And if I tell them its not in his hands and it might take more than 2 years to recover then they think that I am being pessimistic.
I don’t want to make them depressed either but things are not in our hands actually.
Anyways thanks for your reply. Its a long tough journey but so is life.Lets see what future has for us.