Can't Find The Right Words, Spelling, Reading, Etc., Has Become Very Difficult

[blueskies]

Hi all,

I'm experiencing great difficulty finding the 'word I''m looking for' and I have little ability to concentrate enough to read and my spelling is now a disaster. I used to be an excellent speller, had a broad vocabulary and could write and punctuate very well. And was always reading something.

I've seen a 10 year decline in all the above and now it's hard to type on the computer. I learned to touch type many years ago and seem no longer to be able to do it as well -- so many mistakes.

I've been told that frequent migraines have an impact on these functions and the neurologist said given that I get migraine so often that I should not worry about word recall etc..

I try to not worry about it but it does depress me that this is happening. I do blame 'brain fog' for a lot of things. But when I realize I can't remember things my whole family remember it really gets me down. I just have to live with it but boy, it's depressing and annoying and embarrassing when I can't find a simple word when talking to someone.

Also I used to be able to be more succinct when writing stuff but now I have to write and write to try to get my message across. It's a miracle that the word 'succinct' came to me.

[sue1234]

I hear you! I have had a decline in all those areas, also. Even when I type, I find myself jumbling the letters, even though they are all correct letters for the word. I have to proofread everything I type.

I don't get migraines, so that isn't my problem. I actually think mine is either too many low glucose episodes or POTS. It is really beginning to worry me about how much I've declined in the last year.

[looneymom]

Hi Blue,

Are you seeing a neurologist? In the very beginning my son had horrible brain fog. He takes Zoloft and this really helped him stay focused on school work. It took about a week before I could see any improvement but it was worth the wait.

Rachel

[E Soskis]

Yep! Brain Fog - I've noticed a distinct difference in my mental functioning over the past year - much worse since August (had major surgery and a few more procedures requiring some type of anesthesia) - I'm convinced I left a few brain cells in the operating room - combine that with the dysautonomia brain dysfunction and I'm kind of challenged now with higher brain functions......quite annoying to not be "tarp as a shack" anymore......

[artluvr09]

I always have brain fog. I always feel disoriented. I feel depressed everyday because I feel so out of It and unreal like I am in a dream like state. I can't do every normal day things. I feel worse when I go outside or go places. I get to the point where I feel so disoriented that I can't function right then I have a deep fear that I won't be able to speak right, or think right. 2 or 3 years ago I started getting these migraines. I don't know if it was because of the lyme disease I got or not. But every couple of months I get scary migraines. they don't start off as headaches oh no. The first one I got was the one Friday night at my boarding school I went to. I woke up at 4 in the morning with the left side of my face numb and feeling out of it. I went back to bed. Then I woke up and had a migraine and threw up a lot. Then the migraines get scarier. The one time I was in walmart at school and I get anxiety in walmart and those places with lots of people and florescent l ights bother me and crowds do too. all of a sudden my right side of my face goes numb and my eye goes numb and my right hand goes numb then I feel like I was having trouble thinking, focusing, and concentrating. I felt like I was going to pass out. we got back I had dinner then I got a really bad migraine. I tried to email my mom saying I need to go to the hospital but my hands wouldn't work and I couldn't see what I was typing so it came up all jumbled. then I went to bed because staff don't do anything at that school and mom called in because the jumbled email worried her but I was starting to feel better so I just went to bed. Then another time one December we were eating dinner then all of a sudden I couldn't feel my chicken pattie I couldn't even taste it. Then I asked my staff if I could check my blood sugar because I had hypoglycemia at the time when I was on the one med and when we went to go to the closet my right side of my face went numb and my right hadn went numb then I couldn't think and couldn't speak and I couldn't even get the strip into the tester it kept dropping because I couldn't fele my hands or see right then ms Lawson helped me and my sugar was normal but she came with a glass of juice anyway to make sure then I went to drink the juice and dropped the juice without even knowing it just slipped out of my hand. I tried to say I needed to go to the hospital but it came out in gibberish my words were slurring. and the weird thing is the left side of my face that wasn't numb was all red. Then I layed on the couch for a hwile and the supervisor brought down Tylenol and he said oh your fine its just your raynauds but no it wasn't. then the last one I had was the day before graduation. I was down in my cottage packing with my staff then my eye felt tight and my right side of my face went numb, then the right side of my tongue, chin and roof of mouth went numb, then my right hadn and I had trouble speaking and my right hand turned purple and was very shaky. once again I tried telling them I needed to go to the hospital and they wouldn't take me. I was super lightheaded and seeing little lightning flashes and felt like passing out. Then I got a terrible migraine. So yeah I do feel similar to what you are feeling. I am so sick of them I worry constantly that I am going to have a spell if I am out somewhere. I went to a neurologist and he prescribed me 400 mg of viatimin b2 which I haven't tried yet because we wanted to wait to see if the cardiologist would allow the neurologist to put me on atenolol which he did. I am taking a half of 25 mg tablet of atenolol. your dosing would probably be different cause everyone has different dosing. I hope you feel better and good luck!!!

[blueskies]

Thanks for your imput everyone.

Looney mum I think I need to see my neurologist again. Or perhaps I might find another neurologist. I know chronic daily migraine will cause these problems but things I've been putting down to pots stuff and migraines ....well it occurred to me in the chemist today when I reached for a bottle of vitamins and instead of grasping it I actually batted it away that I do this stuff all the time.

The vitamins were at eye level so I can't blame the lack of co-ordination (****, is that word right?) I think it is. Anyway, I will experience dizziness and gravity problems when I look down at shelves or up at shelves in the library or supermarket etc (I tend to only buy things that are at eye level because searching bottom or top shelves makes me go all potsy, and I'm already dealing with those fluro lights and way too much stimuli. at the pharmacy and then at the supermarket when I knocked the thing, that was next to the item I wanted, clear off the shelf I realized for the first time it was not about hurrying or looking up or down or anything. Rather that it's like I don't get my hand around things securely (god the amount of coffees I've dropped at home when I've only grabbed part of the cup) or I'm looking at the thing I want but my reach goes to the thing next to it...but not quite...I sort of nudge what's next to the thing I want while reaching out. Sorry, this sounds confusing.

Maybe time for a new neuro doc. Although both my neuro and my allergist/immunologist have said when I've told them brain fog worries is that I'm actually sharper than I think. But I'm 57 now and it could be another problem. That's something that those of us with pots who get to this age have to be aware of. That we don't put everything down to pots. That it could be something else.

Sue, I do the same thing as you do when I'm typing. The letters are in the wrong order. In the old days (I learned on an old typewriter) this would cause the letters to jam but I know how rarely this happened to me. It's like I can see the word in my head but it comes out completely jumbled. (A lot of the time I'm so tired and sick of it happening

At any rate, hubby just explodes with frustration at my 'clumsiness.' He says it's because I'm not taking care but I am. (This from the man who can't tell his left from his right and always drives the wrong way if there's a choice to be made).

E. Soskis. You also have a point with anaesthesia. Two and half years ago I had a long op on my spine (a laminectomy that took much longer than they expected) followed a few months later by a sedation to check the growth in the submucosal layer of my stomach by an ultrasound endoscopy). Too much of that stuff is, now they know for sure, not something we get over right away. My personal belief is that some of the ill effects following surgery stay forever although docs used to say it takes 6 months to recover from a full anaesthetic.

Artluvr, your numb feelings sound similar one of the types of aura I get when I do get aura. I get numbness and also parts of my vision will either be silver zig-zags with no vision edging it, or part of my visual field will just be missing. My brain fills up the space by sort of closing the gap that would be there if I could see properly. eg. I can see two gate posts but not the gate, or all of the gate if I look at it directly -- is the best way of putting it. I get aura's during migraine too. It's weird. I hope the atenolol is working. I will look it up. I'm in Australia and our drugs often have different names that those in U.S. and elsewhere.

blue

[yogini]

I am mostly recovered from POTS but when I have a flare up! I have these symptoms. Lots of others here have them too. they don't always mean that you have long term damage. I suspect in my case it is bc not enough blood is going to my brain. This resolves itself when the flare up resolves. The migraines also may be related to your POTS

Edited November 3, 2013 by yogini

[Katybug]

Blue,

I felt like it was me writing this post. I am right there with you. I feel like I am on a constant cognitive decline. Of course, the doctors tests me and as my function as still above average, they think there is no problem. The problem is they didn't have a baseline function from when I was well (when I could have run circles around my current self). I have in large part gotten over it and I know that the people closest to me know that these issues are a function of my pots/migraines/eds/mcas (take your pick).

[gertie]

Blue,

Ditto what Katybug said. I have migraines also and Meniere's which has destroyed my hearing & balance. I don't know why but I seem to think more clearly when I have a migraine. Maybe because more blood to the brain? I was trying to read this a.m. & had to keep reading the same paragraphs over & over because I could not concentrate. I wonder sometimes if I have adult ADHD. I have so many things on my mind at once I can't seem to grasp any one thing. The only thing that slows my brain down is the Neurontion I take for migraines but it seems to make my memory worse but I feel calmer. I am really worried about Alzheimers now that I am a senior. I hope you find help.

[Psalm 23]

Blue,

What you describe sounds just like me. This marked reduction in brain function and all the oddities that go along with it is my most distressing symptom I would have to say. I wonder to myself how bad can it get and what can be done to improve it. It is very frightening to say the least. In my case I do have headaches but not migraines so I don't know whether to blame the problem on POTS or one of my other various diagnosis. I do notice that when I am standing the brain dysfunction problems are worse so it leads me to believe that maybe cerebral hypoperfusion is responsible to a degree. You're right in that it's important to have concerns evaluated and not make the assumption that everything is a result of having pots which is easy to do sometimes. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this distressing issue. I hope you get some answers.

Janet

[Katybug]

Oh....I did forget to mention something though. If I try to do brain games daily it does help my cognitive function in many areas. I was doing lumosity.com daily but my subscription ran out and money is tight right now . But I settle for playing majong on my android phone and I know there are other free apps I can download if I look for them. Majong helps with memory, matching pairs, peripheral vision awareness, and hand/eye coordination. I can feel the difference in my function if I don't do some sort of brain exercises for a few days.

[Psalm 23]

Katybug,

Those are great suggestions and very helpful for one suffering from cognitive decline for whatever reason. That's so great that you have found brain activities that help you and may help others as well. I find playing scrabble, sudoku and piano to be helpful. I have found for me that engaging in any brain challenging activity seems to require a great deal of discipline though as fatigue can be so interfering and the path of least resistance is to give in to it. Thank you for reminding us of the importance of remaining engaged and proactive.

Janet

[Chaos]

I have been the same way for several years with the cognitive challenges. That's one area where I think the antivirals I have been taking have helped the most. Still have days that aren't as good mentally as I'd like when I have physical crashes but overall I think this is where the antivirals have made the biggest difference.

This is where the whole ME/CFS and POTS overlap starts getting interesting. There is a lot of documented cognitive impact in ME/CFS. There are SPECT scan studies and fMRIs that show changes in ME/CFS brains vs normals. For example, ME/CFS brains apparently light up whole big areas when asked to do certain tasks whereas normal brains would use a much more specific, smaller area. So it appears that ME/CFS brains are having to recruit parts of the brain differently to process information and perform tasks compared to a normal brain. On certain tasks it's been found that the ME/CFS patients can do the task, but it takes them a lot longer. There are certain types of cognitive things where there seem to be very specific deficits in the ME/CFS brain. And now researchers are wondering if many of the cognitive tests are actually appropriate for picking up the kind of deficits that a lot of us are having.

I don't know that there has been much research on the cognitive deficits of dysautonomia/POTS. Certainly seems like it's an area that needs to be researched though because there are an awful lot of us that are having similar kinds of issues.