Living with Traumatic Brain Injury

My mom suffered a stroke 4 years ago that completely changed our lives. The left side of her brain was damaged causing paralysis to her right side and speech impairment. She had to re-learn everything: How to dress, How to walk ,talk, and even how to feed her self. As if that wasn’t bad enough it wasn’t long before we realized it also affected her memory, comprehension and her ability to control her emotions.

Everyday is a challenge for her and for me. It’s so hard for her because she feels she has no control over her life and it’s hard for me because she was once a loving, caring, patient mother and grandmother but now she’s impatient, angry, frustrated, paranoid and unpredictable. One minute she’s calm and happy and at the drop of a hat she’s irate.

She can’t handle change. For example, the garbage man changed the day he picked up her garbage and she got uncontrolably angry and even said she wished she could die. She takes everything to the extreme and I feel so helpless. I spend 90% of my day trying to calm her down and explain things to her. I know she can’t help it. Her doctor has tried so many different meds but the damage seems to be permanant. I just wonder if there could be help out there that I don’t know about.