Memory problems

My memory has become very significantly worse this year but I can’t remember an example to give you.

I only realised how different it is when, in trialling LDN a few months ago, I suddenly had two afternoons of clarity. The dose was tiny but, in talking to a friend, I was able to access my normal vocabulary and ideas fluently without stumbling, hesitation.....reminds me of that radio game whose name I can’t remember. Unfortunately I can’t continue with the LDN currently.

I haven’t been well for a few months.....sick on sick.....but memory and cognitive function in general have borne the brunt.

How are you going @arewenearlythereyet ? Any changes?

 

@NelliePledge - of course.

 

Hi @Binkie4

memory problems still a bit of a concern I’m afraid ...I haven’t had another complete lapse (that I know of) but my recall has definitely got worse over the last 6 months or so...I’m finding the amount of time I have no clue as to what people are referring to is more frequent...

...say every 3 days I’ll have completely blank no-recall at work and it takes much more memory jogs to be able to remember what I did the previous week. I class this as normal ME moments...just interesting that they are now more frequent and interfering with work during the day (when I’m at my most inactive). It also appears to be happening when all my other symptoms are low when previously severe memory issues were normally clustered around other signs that I had overdone it.

GP sent me for an CT scan about a month ago and this came up all clear so tbh this is a relief that there isn’t anything untoward physiologically and has certainly put my mind at rest.


I’ll put it down to a change in symptom pattern I suppose?
I’m much more restricted than I was a year ago (I’m about half what I was able to do) ...perhaps this is part and parcel of my deterioration/envelope shrinkage?

what’s weird is that some symptoms (like gut issues and heart palpitations) have almost completely gone away.

sorry to hear you’ve not been well recently, I hope things improve a bit ......looks like we would both be pretty useless on ‘just a minute’. I suspect hesitation rather than deviation or repetition would be my undoing

 

It’s good to hear that your CT scan was clear @arewenearlythereyet. That must have relieved your mind considerably but sorry to hear you are still troubled by deterioration in recall.

I can relate to the change in symptom pattern. Am not convinced that my energy envelope is lower overall but cognitive functioning is definitely harder and more tiring now, and I too have to think hard to remember what I did last week which never used to happen.

However I probably do spend more time bedbound (but unable to focus like I used to) so maybe I’m being over optimistic. I used to have a lot of stamina for cognitive work but not now. I sometimes don’t post here or explain my posts clearly because I simply don’t have the energy. So it’s not just memory.

However I refuse to believe it’s gone completely. When my health improves, I might consider giving LDN another trial....only consider mind....because it was wonderful to feel like me again.

I think I would have trouble with more than hesitation!

Edit: removed an irrelevant sentence

 

I forgot an incident that three people around me reminded me I played a major role in. Nothing problematic or anything like that about the event, but it was concerning to have no memory of this, when it impressed others, but I can't dredge it up.

I forget what I'm going to get or do in another room in our house. I have what I call a ghost of an idea of what I was going to do, or where I was going - sort of a feel of where I was going, or what I was about to do. If I'm lucky I can recall what my plan was. But often it's lost. This of course happens to well people, but I can do this numerous times per day, and have for over 30 years.

I couldn't find a government form I had just been reading; I forgot where I put it, when I called the pertinent government office. I finally realized it was right in front of me, but folded over a bit so I couldn't read the front page.

I set up a security question with the wrong answer. Answering the question with what should have been the right answer got me locked out. Agh!

 

I often forget what the initials stand for in journal articles, and have to keep referring back to earlier in the article.

I can forget in about a minute what I was just going to do, or whether I just did something. I forget some useful or important facts in conversations, almost right away; within a minute or two.

I need important things written down, which is cumbersome and time consuming. Most people expect others to retain important instructions. I frequently don't have that capability.

I have to read and re-read how to instructions many times, in order to comprehend and recall what to do.

 

Yes, I say, "Oh what now, not another one!"

 

Don't you mean OWNNAO?

 

It has happened to me recently.

I needed to book a CT scan of my jaw for upcoming dental work, in a different location than my dentist's office. I booked the appointment but the day before said date I was called back and I was told I didn't need to come, because I went already

I don't recall going, and I don't recall having it done. I have proof that I went because there is a billing in my credit card records. What happened is I was booked on the same day and I zipped in and out.

This hasn't happened to me before. Typically I do not remember the number of spoon full of instant coffee I just put in my cup and that is absolutely frustrating to me.

I have not read the whole thread but I hope @arewereallythereyet that your report was a good one.

 

Wouldn't that simply prove that they charged you?

Not that you actually went

 

well, my dentist proceeded with the implant, and in order to proceed she needed said CT.

 

My memory is headed into the dementia range, I am forgetting so much, but my reasoning is intact. Problem is that reasoning without memory is like firing a gun without bullets. This is what stopped me writing science related blogs some years ago. It stopped me working on my book.

I call this not-dementia, for lack of a better name. Just like I have not-narcolepsy for the intense need for sleep I get sometimes. I bet a lot of us also have not-depression and not-anxiety. We literally lack the science to adequately even label these issues.

 

Mine's great until I have to do anything at the same time. So perfect recall whilst in bed thinking about things, but as soon as any 'action' is required then effectively you really notice the ME/CFS issue of it being 'two tasks' - whether that is communication-related or movement-related or perception-related and so on.

 

To be really obscure sounding (but I had this whilst was doing my degree - omg long story there on health etc - so remember thinking on this). Im pretty sure after so many years that I can confirm memory works in picture, videos etc not just words - and that when you aren’t ‘pushing’ for words or indeed a memory or trying to take it from memory to succinct in answering a direct question it’s there to sift through as you need.

Like if a development happened where I could download my gentle thinking then edit after or someone else could then any forms would be easier as I could transfer what I know to someone else knowing without it being trapped by the energy of communication getting in the way. There seems to be something to do with pace of things too.

 

I was like that thirty years ago.

 

My short-term memory seems to be quite badly affected on top of the constant brain fog and concentration problems. My long-term memory is fine. I mentioned several examples in other threads on this forum about how I quite often randomly forget things I have just done or started doing and I keep surprising myself when I discover my activities a bit later. This seems to be a common experience here for others too. My memory of those things is just completely erased, like that part of my brain keeps having short circuits.

This is of course more pronounced when I'm worse. This is an aspect of my disease that is more "visible" to others too because it keeps happening in my conversations too. I keep forgetting what I'm saying mid-sentence, just as I'm saying it. Of course this happens to healthy people too sometimes but in my case it can happen over and over in the same convo, making it a real struggle, as that memory is completely erased and it always takes a while until I can figure out what it was. Not by remembering it but by going back to the last thing I remember from the conversation and working from there. But this is something other people notice too when it's really bad, it is kind of hard to ignore because of its frequency.

I also feel I kind of sound like a 10-year-old even in writing these days but my brain fog has become worse again and I'm happy I can even express myself in any way.