Nwsmith1984
Thank you for your response. I read these posts regularly because I am trying to understand what is happening to me and how I can compensate for the deficiencies that affect me most.

I can’t let go of reading. Thanks to the postings of the other members, I have started reading easier works that I have read before. I find that helps a lot with remembering what I just read. I am following Mark in Idaho’s theory in building up endurance and blocking out lines with an index card. I am also reading text with larger print.

What you describe is exactly what I have when I try to read. Sometimes the words just swim on the page. And if a sentence is too complicated I have no idea what I read leading up to it.

And by the way, Mark in Idaho, I appreciate your re-posting of long posts with spaces added. I literally cannot read them otherwise.

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In regards to your question, I have not been so disoriented as then. Sometimes when I first get up I have to get my bearings, like you explain, but only for a few moments. But I had a different experience this morning, which I think is related.

I thought I was awake this morning when I was really asleep. I had a very vivid dream in which, at a certain point I realized I was only dreaming, but I could not force myself to open my eyes. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t make myself breathe.

When I did wake, it was in a panic and my head was pounding. I took my dog out, but I was too physically tired to get myself breakfast. I wasn’t breathing hard, and my lungs were not tight like an asthma problem, but I felt like I had no oxygen. It took me a few hours to recover. It was a scary experience.