How Bad Can Brain Fog Get For You?

[blueskies]

Hi people,

I'm not unused to brain fog. It's been pretty consistent for the past 8 years or so. But this is the worst it has ever been. Just then my son rang me and for the first time I asked him if he could get something for his dad's dinner because I'm unable to cook tonight. He suggested where he'd go to get something, telling me the name, a deli that I've shopped at since I was in my early 20s and I'm now 55, and I couldn't work out where he was talking about -- it was like I'd never heard the name before. I was standing up at the time of talking to him and hope that was making the brain fog worse. But I'm freaking out that I couldn't think where the heck he was talking about. I know it freaked him out. Finally I remembered where he was talking about. That's just one little example amongst many. I'm more used to the 'can't concentrate to read' type brain fog. Or trying to find the right words, or forgetting the times things occured (say, trying to remember when I last did something)

I'm wondering how bad brain fog can get for others?

thanks,

blue

[icesktr189]

Mine is like that too. Most of the time its the cant read brain fog, but I have tons of times I will completely forget my daughters name or my fiances. Others i just space out completely and dont really notice my surrounds (quite scary). I think its just from too little blood flow and the less you have, the more brain fog there is. For me brain fog = drunk feeling.

[Alyssa]

It can get pretty bad for me, too. For example, tonight we were playing cards. I was trying to count by 5s and kept getting stuck... "5,10,15.....what's next?"

[pulp]

I don't suffer so much from brain fog, I think, I've tried to read up about the meaning of it. I know some evening I tried to count my pulse when I was standing but after 3 attempts I stopped cause I couldn't. I have some other weird thing, I (especially after waking up - takes hours for it to resolve) feel as if someone has poured sirup or put cotton in my head. I can still form words etc but I'm just so exhausted I can catch myself just staring out into nowhere for a long time. I hate the feeling.

[rubytuesday]

I've had this brain fog since the fibro was diagnosed in 1998. I was straight A student, Master's Degree, professional worker in managerial level with memory like a steel trap. Now I find great difficulty in concentration. If I read, sometimes it helps me to read it out loud. Things (noises around me) distract me from my reading (when formerly I couldn't study without a radio on). I start into a room all the time, get in there and forget what in the world I was going in there for. I put things away in odd places, things like a fork or book or document or receipt or checkbook. I have no recollection at all of things my DH speaks of that we did or who someone is. When I run into people (who had been very close friends) they come up to me and I smile and say "hi" all the while wanting to cry as I don't have a clue as to who they are or where I know them from (and I know I must have this blank look in my eye). I will be in the middle of a sentence (a lot) and just stop. People smile politely saying they do that too--but I can never remember--but if I do and they are talking I have to excuse myself and interrupt apologizing that if I don't say it right now, I will forget about it again. When I try hard to think or remember something, it is like my brain is looking at a blank piece of paper and the harder I try the page still stays blank.

When I mention this to PCP/neuro, they brush it off and tell me it is normal for age (mid50s and I've been doing this since early 40s only it's getting worse since the near syncope/syncopal episodes. I'd wondered if I'd lost some memory cells with these spells). The job I'd had working 50-60 hours week required quick thinking on your feet and problem solving. I cannot even remember how a show ended that I had just watched or remember what I had just read or all of an interesting exerpt from the news or a funny joke. I can't remember words to favorite songs and silly rhymes that I used to sing to g-kids (3 yr old will tell me when I make up words that rhyme that that's not right).

I am a little relieved in being diagnosed with EDS and orthostatic hypotension with autonomic nervous system failing since the fibromyalgia that I was diagnosed with in 1998 (and confirmed by other specialists in the field) is still one of those diagnoses many reject. So this 'fibro fog' may be explained by these other issues. I tried the ginsing and ginkoba and then they came out with there is no real evidence it does anything as far as memory (I didn't notice any change). Sometimes with this fog, while I am younger than DH and he sometimes (a lot) forgets stuff, I think his is more that he doesn't pay attention, and I feel like I'm regressing mentally.