Should I see a doctor? Advice needed.
 

In the past year or so, I've been experiencing problems with memory loss. It's very acute. I can literally forget what I am saying in mid-sentence (and frequently do so.) I also constantly forget what my friends/fiance was just talking about. It's not that I don't pay attention, because I do. It happens so quickly though, and I have to ask the person I'm with "What were we just talking about?" I have noticed this for a while, but have not taken any action.

Anyway, I was just having a fight with my fiance. We had been arguing, and he said something that riled me, and as I was about to respond, I suddenly forgot what he just said to rile me. I sort of just choked on my own words and was like "...I can't remember what you just said." Then he says "How can you argue with someone if you can't even remember what they just said?!" I burst into tears because...well, I don't know how I can forget, I just do, and I hate it. It makes communicating so difficult.

Just to note, this only happens when I'm speaking. I never forget what I'm typing or anything like that. Also, I'm 21 years old (so age isn't a factor) and don't drink very often, and I've never used drugs.

Also, not sure if this might be linked, but a few months ago, I was having vision problems with one eye and was referred to a retinal specialist for it. He said what I had was called optic neuritis, which basically means the nerve that connects the eye to the brain was short circuiting.

I know it sounds silly, but maybe my thoughts are short circuiting. It definitely feels like it. I'm afraid to ignore the problem, but I also don't know if it's really worth seeing a doctor for. I'm on my parents insurance right now, and I don't really want to trouble them or get the insurance company angry with me, since I was frequently going to the doctor for the optic neuritis a few months ago.

I really need advice on whether to see a doctor or not and any thoughts/advice would really be appreciated.

I gave a short reply Pippa when I welcomed you to the site in our Introduction thread. I personally would like you to try and see a Neurologist. Is this something that your GP or PCP has mentioned to you?

Optic Neuritis is often (but NOT always) a symptom of another neurological condition, and if you add that to your short term memory loss, then a Neurological disorder of some kind is rather suspicious.

Try not to get any more worried over what I just said because there are plenty of non-serious and curable, even temporary, neurological problems around. Not all are chronic, not all are life threatening, but I would think that your sypmtoms need further investigation.

It is not normal for a 21 year old to have short term memory loss. Something has to have triggered it, and until you find out what, you are going to be stressed out, and stress will probably only compound the problems that you're already experiencing.

I do hope you get some answers soon, but I'd definitely be going back to discuss this with your GP. At least that would be a starting point. :hug:

Thank you for the advice, Koala. I've been looking up some neurologists. I'd rather not go to my primary care physician. We're not really on good terms, mostly because the staff at his office is so unprofessional, and I've had some pretty bad experiences there. My parents have been looking into finding a new one, but they haven't gotten around to it yet. Before the ON, I thought since I was young and had no health problems, I could get away with just going to an urgeant care for a while. Naturally, this wasn't the case.

Tomorrow I'm going to call and inquire about co-pay/becoming a new patient to a neurologist I found that isn't too far from where I live.

Thank you for the advice, Koala. I've been looking up some neurologists. I'd rather not go to my primary care physician. We're not really on good terms, mostly because the staff at his office is so unprofessional, and I've had some pretty bad experiences there. My parents have been looking into finding a new one, but they haven't gotten around to it yet. Before the ON, I thought since I was young and had no health problems, I could get away with just going to an urgeant care for a while. Naturally, this wasn't the case.

Tomorrow I'm going to call and inquire about co-pay/becoming a new patient to a neurologist I found that isn't too far from where I live.

That's excellent news Pippa.

Thanks for letting me know, and don't forget to keep us updated. :hug:

This doesn't bode well.
 

Yesterday, in my left eye, I noticed a blur in my periphral vision, and in dim light, the flashing strobe. I sort of just figured I was freaking myself out, or maybe I just needed to take my contacts out and clean them.

This morning, without any contacts in, the blur is still there, and it's worse than yesterday. The strobe is more noticable.

I told my mom the ON has come back, and she agreed I need to see a neuro. The last time I had ON, I had an MRI done and it came back normal. The retinal specialist said it would more than likely never happen again, but if it did, to see a neuro.

I can't deny that I'm really freaked out now, especially with this happening again and exams being next week. Maybe this was brought on by stress?

Well it sounds like you could possibly be having another episode of ON Pippa, and I don't know why the specialist said it wouldn't come back. I've had ON around 6 or 7 times......in both eyes now, but never in both at the same time.

There are other tests for ON apart from MRIs too, and the one I had was called Visually Evoked Responses, or VER for short.


Although stress may increase the symptoms that you're having, something physical like O.N. cannot be caused by stress alone. You can't (as far as I'm aware) cause your self to have blurred vision, just because you're stressed out.

There is however, another possibility for your blurred vision and flashing lights. Migraine Headaches have similar symptoms, and I do believe that stress can trigger those.

I'm glad that your mother will help you get a neuro Appointment, as a short course of Cortisone therapy would probably clear this episode up quickly if it is indeed ON. If it turns out to be migraine headaches, then there are medications to control those as well.

May I also suggest you post in our Headache Forum Pippa, as we have lots of members there who get migraines, and they'd have a better idea than me if your symptoms sound more like migraines than Optic Neuritis at the moment.

Here's the direct link: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum32.html

I hope that's been some help for you, and do try and get that Neuro appointment as something sure isn't right. Good luck Pippa. I hope you get some answers soon. :hug:

I'm pretty confident it's ON. I do have migraines occasionally, but I haven't had one in probably six months or longer. There was no pain with the ON last time, and there is none this time either. Since I last posted, the ON has gotten worse. I haven't been able to schedule an appointment with a Neuro yet because it's Memorial Day and medical offices (aside from hospitals) are closed. The ON is annoying, but I can live with it until it goes away on it's own. I'm more worried about what two episodes two months apart could mean, especially in conjunction with the short term memory loss. I won't jump to conclusions. It's just that I want answers right now, and I can't have that.

Just a little update.
 

The retinal specialist I saw referred me to a neuro. My appointment is next Wednesday. Maybe I can figure out what's going on once and for all.

I'm really pleased to hear it Pippa, and it's great that you don't have a long wait to see the Neuro.

You don't say where you're from, but most Neuros have a waiting list from 2 months onwards, so you did very well with that appointment. I'm wondering if your referring doctor has now realised how important it is to get this checked out quickly.

Please let us know how you get on, and while you're waiting, check out some of the other forums and join in anywhere you like. :hug:

If you are going to a large university, you might look into the medical services attached to your school. Sometimes, they are the best physicians around, and have the best research labs.

How everything went
 

The neurologist I saw today really didn't do much but talk with me. I'm set to have a VER and blood work done on the 17th, and they are sending me back to the eye institute for the ON, but now I'm seeing a new doctor (not my decision, I was fine with the other doctor.)

He said that at my age, the memory loss definitely wasn't normal. I don't know, the guy was nice and all, but I think he knows about as much as I do at this point. Hopefully I'll know more by mid-month.

Thanks for getting back to us Pippa. I can understand your frustration having waited for this appointment and having so many questions, only to find the neuro didn't really tell you much, but the VER will decide how much damage (if any) your eyes have had from that episode of Optic Neuritis that you've recently been through.

I think it's an understatement when he said that memory loss at your age "definitely wasn't normal". I truly hope you get some answers when you see the other doctor, and you get these tests out of the way.

Please let us know how you go, and if there's any way in which we can be of assistance to you. :hug:

Today I had my bloodwork and VEP (or VER?) It was a lot more pleasant an experience than I thought it would be. Everyone at the hospital was very nice, and the bloodwork was quick and painless.

The doctor that administered the VEP was a real comedian, and he had a student about my own age attach the electrodes.

I sort of inferred that he could interpret the test results immediately, and when I asked him if he could, he said yes, but my Neuro had requested that he get the test results and tell me in person. I was a little upset about that, because it seemed unnecessary when I could know the results of the VEP right now.

The hospital I had my MRI at never sent my results to the neuro either. He suggested that I might have retinal migraines, but I've done a bit of reading on them, and apparently there is a headache involved in a retinal migraine, and the visual symptoms last hours, not weeks. On paper, the official diagnoses is optic neuritis.

I guess I'm wondering what it all means. Is it possible that I had two isolated incidences of ON and nothing is wrong at all? And what about my memory?

The neuro wants me to see another eye specialist at the same place I was diagnosed with the first incidence of ON on Friday. He said if my other doctor questioned me, to tell him my neuro referred me to the new doctor.

I know my neuro is a smart guy with a good reputation in the medical community, but I don't think he really has any idea what's going on. He told me he thinks I might be depressed after seeing me one time. I wasn't even acting depressed. At most, maybe a little nervous, but I wasn't acting unusual. I just feel like the guy didn't even listen to me.

I'll keep you all updated :Wave-Hello:

Thank you so much for getting back to us Pippa.

Believe it or not, I was only thinking about you yesterday. I accessed this site but saw nothing new from you, then YAY! Today's there's an update. I must have some sort of mental telepathy thing going at the moment! :)

I'm glad you had the VER/VEP because I believe that's the best test there is at the moment to check out permanent damage caused by ON. Naturally I could be wrong, and I often am, but hopefully some-one out there will correct me if necessary. I've had VER/VEPs done myself a few times and the last one was quite funny for me, and I thought I'd share it with you!

I was all wired up to the machine with wires stuck all over my head, but the technician kept saying that his machine was playing up. He kept coming to me and rescrubbing my head, and reapplying the electrodes. He had this weird look on his face like he couldn't understand why his "special" machine was giving out these weird readings.

I told him several times that I'd had ON many times and probably 4 or 5 times in the eye that was giving him trouble, but.....it still never really got through his thick skull that the myelin on that Optic Nerve was so badly damaged, that his machine was not ever going to spit out the "normal" readings that all his other clients so readily provided him! :D

Even though I've had MS for over 30 years, and been through just about every test there is, and sometimes I've done those same tests many times, it's a very rare occassion when a technician, a radiologist or similar will share their findings with you. I do think it's best that the Neuro explains them to you anyway, especially if there's an abnormality. If something is wrong, the first thing I'd do, and possibly you too, would be to look it up on the Internet, and by doing that we are diagnosing ourselves, and most of us make a right royal mess of that! :D

One of my neuros also suggested the Migraine thing to me because I have chronic eye pain left over from the last episode of ON, but he proved that wrong by tests and trials of different medications.

I'm not sure what blood work you had done, but I'd be hoping they checked your VitB and also your VitD, as both have proved to be important in several different neurological conditions.

Maybe the other Opthalmo doc is a good idea, but it doen't ring any exciting bells with me I'm afraid. Either you had or have ON or you don't. I can't see another Eye doc seeing things the other one didn't.

But.....in regards to your Neuro......I have known heaps of people over the years since I was first diagnosed with a neurological condition (I dare say you realise by now that it's MS for me). You probably would not be surprised to know the huge percentage of those people who were initially fobbed off with a diagnosis of "Depression" only to be re-diagnosed at a later date with something neurological, where medications may have helped significantly had they been started earlier!

Do wait and see what your neuro says when you go back for your results, but don't give up Pippa. If you're not happy with your ongoing treatment, ask to be referred to some-one different.

We're on your side, and I thank you for checking in. I've been worrying about you, and I'm sure other's have been too! :hug:

Thanks for the story, Koala! Bewildering specialists is fun :D

Actually, I've gotten a whole range of opinions from each side of my family. When I had my first episode of ON, my mom looked it up, and the first things that showed up were about MS. A friend at work told her that it actually might be retinal migraines, so now she's positive that it's nothing worse than that.

My fiance's side of the family are all worried it is MS. When his mom first described my ON to a few other people in the family, three of them sort of looked shocked and told her that I need to be tested for MS. His mom is a nurse and said she can't really find any other explanation for what has been going on.

I'm sort of in between. I've realized there has been a possibility that it is MS from the beginning, but I also know it could be something that isn't serious at all. The only thing I have become fed up with is that (even though no one's said it) I feel like maybe they think it's all in my head, because of the lack of communication between the eye specialist and the neuro. My visual field test and color vision tests showed that I had some damage, but since it's not permanent, it tends to clear up like it was never there within weeks, or even days. Since no one can actually see any physical evidence of what I'm seeing, or the things I forget constantly, what is there to show them that this is real, other than my telling them?

I think that's why I'm worried about the results of the VER. Will it show the damage from my past ON episodes, or since it's cleared up a lot, show nothing? I really don't understand how those work.

I'm really frusterated and just want an answer right now, no matter what that answer might be.

Hi Pippa, isn't it great when all our family members take great delight in diagnosing us because "Great Aunt Winnifred had something just like what you've got, etc. :confused: They all decide it's something different, and they all tend to diagnose something more debilitating as their stories beccome more intricate! :D

Your mother was right about MS and ON often going hand-in-hand, but remember that it's not the only cause. Unfortunately though, ON is often the very first symptom that some MSers get, and it's often the one that will give their doctor the first big clue to the investigations he/she should be doing.
There are other reasons for you to be having these symptoms, but MS obviously can't be ignored. The VER/VEP will show damage from past ON episodes even though it's no longer active. They're very sensitive at measuring slowed responses to visual stimulii and can often detect dysfunction which is undetectable by clinical evaluation, even if the person is unaware of any visual defect.

Because of their ability to detect silent lesions and demyelinating episodes in the past, they're very useful diagnostic tools. A definite diagnosis of multiple sclerosis requires at least two distinct demyelinating episodes, in two different central nervous system sites which are separated by at least one month. VER/VEPs can often provide evidence of these episodes even if an MRI cannot.

Please try not to be too centred on the MS diagnosis because believe me, even though I do have the condition, I'd rather have MS than many other illnesses that are out there! Also please bear in mind that not all MSers are disabled. I was diagnosed 31 years ago, and I'm still very mobile although I've recently started using a cane for balance.

I hope I've been of some assistance to you, and do let us know when you get your results back. I'm sure that if your Neuro is suspicious of MS, your very next investigation will probably be an MRI. In the meantime, you're welcome to come on over to the MS Forum. We have others there who are undiagnosed but suffering from MS type symptoms and in need of advice and support. :hug: