Hi Jan & all,
My mom (60 yrs.old) was diagnosed with a mixed oligodendrogiloma in June of 94. I am her only child and she is single. She moved in with me & my family after her first resection and I was her caregiver for the past 10 months. She went through several rounds of temodar & radiation, had a second resection and has just run out of treatment options. She has a history of Lupus , so her blood system could not handle the temodar.
To answer your question, yes, I have seen a lot of personality changes. My mom's cancer also affected her mobilty on her her left side, so it is almost as if she has suffered a stroke and battles a malignant tumor at the same time. It has been the hardest thing any of us has had to deal with. My husband & I have often been confused about my mom's personality changes. It is so hard to know what is caused by the tumor/treatment vs. what is simply my mom having a hard time dealing with all the negative change in her life. She is extremely angry, bitter and just not the mom I remember at all. After her last hoapital ER visit ( there have been many) she was admitted into a nursing home. I have two small children under 3 years old and am pregnanat with our third. This was extremely difficult seeing my mom in a nursing home - she is only 60! Yet, her medical needs are very high right now and she needs full time medical help. My husband is on the way right now to take her to the hospital again because the home called and said she is very out of it and her blood pressure is very high. The last few days when we talked she would say dreadful things like she didn't know where she went wrong in raising me and that nobody loves her and that she has nothing to offer anybody and it would be better off for everyone if she died. I pray for peace for her all the time. One fortunate thing is that she has not had any pain (except for all the emotional pain, of course). Sorry this is going on & on...feel free to e-mail anytime.
Tami