stroke and memory

[greek goddess]

on april 29th mom who is 80 years old and was independent 3 weeks ago had a moderate stroke affecting parietal lobe and heart attack.  stent placed in left vessel of the heart due to narrowing.  she was in the hospital for 9 days mostly to moniter coumadin levels.  she was home for a day and a half and seemed to be getting more and more confused.  admitted back to hospital for confusion and uti.  now d/c to rehab unit but not a candidate for OT or PT because physically doing very well.  she is being seen everyday at the facility by speech therapist working on cognitive problems.  mom seems to have very little short term memory and not able to play checkers, having trouble with time and mixing up events that have already happened.  plans are to evaluate no longer than 20 days in the facility and then send home to her apartment.  already have her granddaughter lined up to provide care during the day and we will provide care in the evening and thru the night.  HOW LONG SHOULD WE WAIT BEFORE MAKING DECISIONS REGARDING HER CARE FOR THE FUTURE.  CAN SHE GET BETTER?

[Quilting1]

I am a social worker with geriatric and medical social work experience and a stroke survivor myself.  There are no clear cut answers for how long you should wait.  It sounds like she currently needs 24 hour care and I'm glad you have that set up.  If it was my mother I would provide that care until she gets better or until caregivers are unable to assist any longer because individuals tend to do better in their own homes with assistance.  Also, there is no way to judge if or when her memory will improve.  I had my stroke 3 years ago at age 43 and still have some memory problems, but some recover quickly and others never do.  There's also another good website with great information and support: strokenetwork.org    They won't be able to give you any idea if or when she will improve but you'll most likely get a lot of people to respond to a post with a lot of different backgrounds and experience that might help.
Pam