New Topic for Discussion:
     Robert currently has a very good intellect, High Retention, very polite and good manners, never intentional hurts anyone (except maybe his older brother)ETC...If I had to say he lacks anywhere it would be in physical stuff....he is easy to cry, not very athletic (dosnt ride a bike because he says his balance is off).

    If what the Dr's say is true and Robert has been partialy occluded since birth, and the surgery is successful what will the blood flow do to Roberts personality and Intellect. I remind you that Robert is pre-surgery and shows no sign of permenant damage from stroke

    I would just like to hear everyones thoughts on what they witnessed or observed after surgery ...........

It will in no way effect the fact that robert will have surgery

Thanks for you Imput
Mike

Hi Mike,
This is not a subject I am confident on commenting on but I would say that the brain function would only change if there was damage done to it in the form of a stroke etc. If there has been no damage done from strokes I don't see how it can change personality etc.
If Robert already has good intellect etc, I feel that this will stay that way as there will be a better supply of blood getting through after surgery, so unless something happens and the brain is affected in some way, this shouldn't change. After surgery though it may take a little time for brain function to return to normal as I know, as well as talking from experience and know others on this site have experienced the same after surgery, it does play games with your brain. But it does come back to normal usually. I cannot DEFINITELY comment as everyone is different and I am not a doctor.
After my first surgery on my left side I had problems processing and retaining information and memory was hopeless, but that returned in a couple of months. I just had to change the way I did things to compensate in the meantime.

Hope this helps
Moira

My daughter, Daphne, had severe physical and intellectual problems way before her moyamoya was discovered -- even before she suffered two strokes.  She began having seizures  (20 or more a day) when she was three months old, and lost developmental skills, and withdrew from the world.  She had just started to make some progress when she was about 8 months old.  She started to roll over, we got control of her seizures with medicine, and she started to become more interactive -- her personality really began to show through.   When she was 14 months old, she suffered two, major strokes, and lost everything.  She could not move her arms or legs, had difficulty even breathing.  She was finally diagnosed with moyamoya, but her doctors told us that it was too late.... she was too far gone for surgery, and they provided us with hospice nursing so that we could take her home.

We did not give up on her, though, and we got in touch with a neurosurgeon (Dr. Steinberg) who thought Daphne could benefit from surgery.

Even before the surgery, Daphne was becoming better.  She was able to move her legs, and her left arm, but she was very demanding and seemed to often be in pain.

I can't tell you what a difference the surgery has made in her life.   Daphne still has significant challenges... at almost three, she does not walk, crawl, speak or even sit up properly.  However, she was 15 months old when she went through her surgery, and she will be 3 years old in less than a month.  She is also extremely personable.  To know Daphne is to love her; and she is VERY smart.  Her vision has improved, her energy has improved, and - overall - she is a much happier, healthier child.  She has had no other stroke-like incidences, and her cerebral blood flow has improved by 200%!!!

You mentioned you were already committed to surgery, so I won't lecture you on it's benefits :)  I know it is a worry going into this --- you have no idea what the outcome might be.  But, I know that without treatment, there is a very big risk for losing skills and the personality features that we love about our kids.  With surgery, we have a chance to save them, and even improve them.

Jenny (mom to Daphne.  www.daphnestory.com)

kotipup wrote on Sep 15^th, 2006 at 8:09pm:

I know that without treatment, there is a very big risk for losing skills and the personality features that we love about our kids.  With surgery, we have a chance to save them, and even improve them.

Hi Mike,

I was going to comment on how remarkably well my niece, Mandy improved after her surgery and give you my opinion, but I couldn’t have worded it better than Jenny just did. That said it all.

Mar

As someone with MM. I can say after my stroke I was getting tiered more and I would cry at everything. My family and husband said I wasn't my chipper and happy self. Also my vocabulary was diffrent I was very exprssive and then it was just okay, whatever, shrug of the sholders. I did have trouble with my balance but that came back the more I worked on it.

Now it has been 2 years after my surgery and I am fully back to myself. I still get tiered more easly. All my freinds and family have seen the old Becky come back. I believe sinsce your son Robert is young he might be able to bounce back or inprove even more.  I don't premote surgey for anyone I would go with what your doc says. I had a STA-MCA bypass and the mussle on brain thingy. In my case I now am living with a 50 cent perminate hole in my head on the side, but great blood flow. I can tell you I am still not use to the softspot.

Good luck and God bless you and your family with what ever desion you make.
Becky

Hi Mike -

Well, I can only speak of my experiences, of course...but here goes.  

After my second surgery I had my 3rd stroke (first was "silent", second was mild which let to my moyamoya dx).  Seems my strokes were getting more debilitiating as the number went up.  This 3rd one left me with aphasia and weakness in my right side (my dominant side).  I had trouble even holding a pencil to play the tic-tac-toe that my mom was forcing me to do ("it will help you coordinate" she said!).  I had to relearn how to type and write (typing is important as I work on a computer all day!)  Anyway, I went through speech and occupational therapy and I can say that I am abuot 95% back to what I was pre-stroke.  I still slurr my words sometimes.  I also get tired real easily (I get grumpy when I'm tired - but my brothers and parents would say that's nothing new!).

I've seen a few reports on the discovery channel and the learning channel how those with strokes and other forms of brain damage are recovering what functions they have lost - even years after the head trauma or stroke.  

Just my FYI...and my  [smiley=twocents.gif].

-Shari