Question:
My wife has a severe short-term memory loss she does not remember anything about what had been spoken a few minutes later, this all happened after a severe injury she received on 5th April 2003 an extremely heavy object hitting her after falling from a height of 30ft fracturing three of her vertebras and hitting her head on a concrete floor.

I have grave concern that three and a half years have passed and she seemed to be getting worse rather than better, she has not received any rehab after her accident there have been long delays in achieving rehab for her by the doctors involved.

I do believe that she had a mild brain injury but it had been taking a long while for any real help to come along, the doctors involved had arranged for her two go to a local rehab clinic but three and a half years later we are still waiting. Does anybody know how to cope with such a situation, I tell her not to touch anything but before her accident she used to take care of all my paperwork for my business and make sure all the bills are paid so she still tries to go through that process but it causes havoc now, but I am not allowed to say anything because it upsets her a great deal and it causes a great conflict between the both of us.

Answer: That the MRI found nothing says more about the limitations of the technology than your wife's condition. In mild brain injury it can be very difficult to detect brain damage, sometimes a type of SPECT scan can help. The neurologist who immediately referred her to a psych was not being thorough, should have looked harder. A neuropsych workup is recommended.

The memory loss points to a temporal lobe issue, quite common in brain injury for axonal shear stress to create all sorts of problems. The memory problem is usually the prominent one but you should also be looking for.As you live in England don't neglect vitamin D, deficiencies are very common and it plays a vital role in modulating the immune response, which can go out of kilter post brain injury and this is not good for the brain or the body.

In the very least she should be taking a slow release multi-vitamin.

Exercise is very important, though not vigourous and not competitive. Something enjoyable and preferably in a natural environment.

Your wife must learn some stress management techniques, over the long term stress is a big brain cell killer. If possible, a holiday is a good idea. It would be interesting to see if there is any improvement following a sustained rest from stress.