Meningioma OR Dementia?

Hi All,

This is my first time to post in this forum, i am lost with the health case my mother is having right now, so i'm hoping to find valuable opinions here

My Mother is aged 64 now, she has Type II Diabetis, and had a meningioma surgery (Frontal Lobe) last May2005.
The tumor extracted from that surgery was big, and it caused my mothers smell, so after surgery she had no sense of smell already.. but the good part is she returned to her "normal self"   e.g. she knows what she's doing, she can control her urine, and her behaviour is back to normal - unlike before she was operated where she doesn't know or is not aware of what she is doing, very evident behavioral change, and uncontrolled urine...
Before she was diagnosed with meningioma she had several months of high blood sugar level, this in fact was our first theory that the long period of high blood sugar level is causing the behavioral change since she was diabetic, but later ruled out as i said because she was diagnosed with meningioma...

Now, 4 years after that surgery, we are again worried for the signs we are seeing. To give a clear distinction between the case now and before with her meningioma i have breakdown our observations as follows:

1. We are seeing again evident behavioral changes... The most significant is her Cognitive abilities... She can reason out properly, but she can not find or speak the word she wants to say.  She can not complete a sentence because she can not produce the word for the object/person/event that she is referring to.    The difference now from before is that before she is totally unaware of what she's doing,  unlike now she has the sense of awareness but could not speak completely due to our observation that she can not recall the word for what she is referring to (people, object, place, event)

2. She can control her urine, but poorly that sometimes she urinates in her pants,  but not TOTALLY UNCONTROLLED urination as was the case before..

3. She is too silent now, she doesn't tell tales or stories anymore, similar to a total loner where you will see her sitting for hours in a corner not speaking or doing anything, just sitting, even if a person is sitting in front of her she does not communicate, just silent...  - unlike before she seems to have no control of talking to anyone with any topic that comes to her mind..

4. She eats normally AND she doesn't lose or gain weight...  her weight is stable at 128 lbs... - unlike before she rapidly lost weight

5. She sleeps normally - unlike before she had sleeping problems...

6. She has no sense of self grooming now - same as before


We returned her to the Neurologist that handled her before, examined her (no CT scans done). The neurologist said she can not see any signs that the Meningioma has re-occured... Her diagnosis was my mother was having a depression, so she prescribed her to take Stablon Anti-Depressant.   But after two weeks of taking Stablon, there was no expected result happening, and worst my mother began showing unawareness of what she is saying... so we immediately stopped the Stablon and informed her neurologist, which also agreed to stop the Stablon.
Tomorrow we're returning my mother to the Neurologist for further examination as requested by the neurologist herself.

I am now lost on my mother's case....   Based from the observations above, is this meningioma re-occuring?   Or Early stage of Dementia?   Or another Neurological disorder?

Please Help me...  What should we do to get a clear definite diagnosis...

[Dr Vinod]

First and foremost is the sugar level normal all throught out these years!
Diabetes also causes lots of neuropathy symptoms.

Most meningiomas are benign and treatable, but the meningiomas may recur as a more aggressive, or higher grade, tumor sometimes so the diagnosis here is important for the second occasion.
Take an appointment near the neurologist and get a scan done, all her symptoms are connecting to a  brain lesion.
Take care and come back to us on further queries.