Hi Alex-Davis, and everybody else on this page…
I had my brain-iotomy (yeah, I know, Craniotomy) last June 9, 2016. It went well, as well as I could have hoped. I was back at the Gym in two weeks (light workouts, but still)-- I thought I was back to normal…
Now there is a new normal. I forget things all the time: if it isn’t right in front of me, it is not in my mind. But, I have found ways to cope: staying calm, and trying to focus , and when I start something I try to finish it before wondering off. I have two teenage boys, so staying calm is sometimes a losing proposition…
Speaking of which, I have noticed that I have sudden outbreaks of explosive rage: it is as though a toggle switch have been flipped and for a brief while I really yell a lot. It is not as though there episodes are spontaneous-- it is when, for example, I have asked my sons to be quiet, 10 or more times, and they continue to ignore me, but still, it is more than before, and it is not a good thing.
Anyway, once I recognized a pattern, I have been working on controlling it. I still have the occasional outburst, but have been successful at keeping frequency down to once every few months. And also trying to keep from entering the “Angry” stage in the first place.
In all, I am glad to be able to keep looking for strategies to cope with my “new normal”, rather than the alternative.
Oh look, a diversion… 
I’m sure that’s just dealing with teenage boys 
More seriously, well done at working out a strategy and managing it.
Richard
Alex, I understand what you are going through and your frustrations.
My AVM is in the rt occipital extending into the thalamus. I had 4 angiograms using “old” xray equipment, prior to digital; 3 embolizatioms; Bragg proton radiation treatment; gamma knife radiation all over the past 38 years.
I unfortunately had to leave my job of 17 years and go on full disability.
I discovered my employees were helping me and I didn’t realize it. My short term memory is highly impaired.
My neurosurgeon and I were always aware that this could happen but we took it a day at a time. I know that gamma knife treatments can have this affect but it. occurs within the first 5 years and fortunately many patients do recover from this
The reason I listed many of the imaging and radiation treatments is that may be the cause of my problems. The embolizatioms may have contributed. The location of the AVM can also be the cause, or it could be a combination of everything.
I fought to not go out on disability but I could see how it was impairing my work. I onto remember simple things, time of day, day of week, where I may have parked the car. Unfortunately my memory is getting worse instead of better. Maybe you will reach a plateau and it will either stay at the current state or recede and give you some back.
If you want some information regarding LTD let me know and I can share what I went through in the hopes that you won’t. I know the anger and frustration that I had and have but that won’t help in the end. Let me know if I can help.
Ross
I have had a serious memory problem also. It started to get worse a few years before the seizures began in 1986. After the surgery in 1989, it got worse. I hid it for many years with jokes and stuff. While it was continuous crisis inside me, I was able to pull it off as not a major problem to those on the outside. Recently, it’s gotten more difficult. I’m not certain if it’s because my shrink told me to stop hiding this weakness or if approaching old age is starting to add onto this problem. I turn 60 next month. I don’t think admitting weakness in the work environment is really a good idea, at least not the business I’m in.
I have a job requiring a lot of memory, I’m a chemist. However, it’s an advantage where if I make a mistake, it’s just a lab experiment problem. Over the years, I’ve been maneuvering into a position that uses computer records, not memory. That’s helped, but it’s still an uphill battle.
Alex:
I definitely have short-term memory problems since my AVM ruptured in 2014. Gamma Knife in 2015. My long term memory seems even sharper than it was before the AVM! Go figure? Sometimes my memory will totally embarrass me in certain social settings. Unlike you, I was lucky enough to have retired before my AVM was diagnosed. My job entailed tracking many projects at the same time and following the money. No way I could do that now. I’m just happy to be alive! God Bless my husband. He generously fills in the blanks for me. 