Why does my daughter behave like a new born after brain tumor surgery?

Question

Hi doctor,

My kid is 12 years. She had grade 4 medulloblastoma. After brain tumor surgery, she is behaving like a new born baby. She is not walking or talking. Every minute she is screaming. Her neck is not balanced. It is around three weeks now after surgery. After physiotherapy slight change in her walk. Please advice.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com. Cerebellum is the part of brain where trained movements are stored. It is like the history section of your internet browser. When there is a tumor in cerebellum, it means that the browser has been infected with virus. So, the browser has to be reinstalled. By reinstalling the browser, you will get rid of the virus, but as a side effect, the history too would be gone. Same way, the tumor affected areas of the cerebellum are removed. We lose not only the tumour, but also the entire thing the child has learnt (if not all, most of what the child had learnt). So, the child has to relearn all the movements and balancing. It may take some time. Also, please note that it may not be able to regain the full strength and power in many children. But with physiotherapy, speech therapy and other rehabilitations, the child will improve. Let us complete the chemotherapy and radiotherapy, if they had been recommended by your neurosurgeon and hope for the best.