[nexxo]

Just a brief post of support... Dealing with brain injury is difficult at the best of times, but particularly so when you have a new baby to look after as well! I hope your wife will make a good recovery. In fact, as a neuropsychologist working on a brain injury rehabilitation ward (in- and out-patient), I can tell you that these things always look a lot worse in the beginning than they tend to pan out in the long term. Give it time; progress is always slow in the first months.

From what little you mentioned in the forum I cannot form a very detailed picture, and I'm sure you've been explained all this much better in Hospital by the experts who are treating your wife, but just for what it's worth:

The basal ganglia are involved in automatic motor processes, memory, habitual behaviour, drives and basic emotion. The right basal ganglia specifically regulate motor movement in the left part of the body. A bleed in that region tends to affect these functions primarily. The right hypocampus (predominantly visual memory) can be affected as well, and also the visual pathways running past that region, resulting in some loss of left visual field. It is therefore best to sit at your wife's bed on her right side.

On the up-side, if the injury is limited to the basal ganglia, higher cognitive processes should stay unaffected so although your wife will be pretty groggy and disoriented right now, in the long term she should not suffer personality change or significant change in intellectual ability. She may be a bit slower, and left with some memory problems (easily compensated for) and at first, some initiation problems (finding it hard to start actions). She will be very tired a lot. She will probably have some left motor problems, in walking and balance, as well as co-ordinated movement of left arm and leg, but physiotherapy can improve this considerably. Language again will be fine, so although I know I don't have to tell you to keep talking to her, take heart in knowing that at some level she can hear and understand you. Her speech may be affected by left sided motor problems however, so her speech may be slurred at first.

Her brain stem (life-support systems) should stay unaffected, and I imagine doctors will be keeping a close eye on any swelling of the site of injury, so it doesn't press down on the brain-stem structures. This tends to be the main focus of acute management, and they're pretty good at it. Your wife's unconsciousness is, in a way, the brain's way of protecting itself from further damage by lowering its metabolic needs.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I know all you can do is wait, and powerlessness is a terrible thing to feel. But for what it's worth, I'm optimistic about this one. Take care of yourself.