brain fog?
 

Does anyone have moments where they are forgetting what they are doing? Like i was at work saturday and i was scanning some items to ring up and i had them in my good hand and i kind of blanked out (brain fart) several times and forgot where i was and what i was doing. Then also i dont reconize people i should.. like family i grew up with, but dont see as often as i would like. or at work today reconized someone i barely knew then turned my head and looked back and it was like looking at something for the first time. It didnt look familiar at all. It seems to be getting more frequently and i feel like i am getting dementia to be honest, and i am getting scared. My neuro thinks there migranes and the topamax is at 100mg. freaking me out..just want to make sure thats its not migranes.. please help! confused in crps land!!:confused::confused:

Hi Barbara,

IMHO, If all these symptoms started with the Topamax, you might want to go off it for a while to see if they abate. It might be the meds. Our limbic system can also get messed up with RSD and cause some or all of those symptoms. But before you blame the RSD you may want to see if the meds are the reason for your brain fog.

XOXOX Sandy

Hi Babs.

I completely understand. I am on high doses of several meds. My short term memory is very foggy. I will bring home a new movie to watch and my husband will say that we just watched it last week! I have no memory of it. I find that I also find myself forgetting words for the most usual of things. It's a maddening side effect of both meds and RSD. My Neuro said that it might level off over time. I personally would rather stop the meds, especially Neuronton, as that seems to be the worst.

Please, don't feel like you're losing it. Remind your family and friends that you are having this problem. My kids tease me, but they are just trying to make me feel better. Remember, stress is bad for us.

Good luck.

Kim

before
 

it started before the topamax.. she started me on topamax cuz she thought they were due to migranes.. cuz i was have blurred vision as well. my vision was going black, or it would look different. it started in november and i started topamax in jan. im at 100mg now have been for bout 2 weeks now and its not getting better so thats why i am getting worried.. i had to gradually go up on topamax as most know.. but they seem to be more frequent now..feel like i am losing my mind some times. and lately i feel like things are not quite right.. that somethin bad is about to happen. and last time that happened was in sept. and we went to a state line rally and 5 bikers were killed that weekend.. so a little worried..ok a lot worried.. this is a new feeling for me. i dont quite understand it.. i feel kind of like a freak.:eek:

I was only on 100 mg of Topamax for a while. And when I saw Dr. Getson in December he told that it wasn't a high enough dose to do anything (he called it "subtherapeutic"). So he upped it. He wanted me to go up to 300 mg a day - 100 mg every 8 eight hours. That was too much for me (I only weigh 125-130). I was a miserable witch (and that's putting it a nice spin on it). So I've backed it down to 200 mg a day. I'm still pretty miserable, but not as bad. I'm hoping that some decent weather will improve my mood...I don't wake up with the migraines like I used to - the ones that make me vomit - unless I use my arms for something, or I sleep on the back on my head by mistake, or I go outside in the windy weather without a hat (I only did that ONCE!). So I think the Topamax has helped me. I couldn't tolerate Neurontin or Lyrica - stuff was like poison.

Good luck to you, sorry about your head. XOXOX Sandy

P.S. There are black box warnings on a lot of these siezure meds and some of the anti-depressants too. So watch your moods. They can make you suicidal.

repeating a post from 02.01.10 under "okay..... my RSD brain is shot!!!!"
 

Dear Babs -

As I mentioned to keep smilin a month ago, this is an important topic that (1) comes up a lot on the forum and (2) doesn't get the attention it deserves in medicine in general. So, with that introduction:

Hi. This topic, sometimes referred to as "brain rot," comes up with some regularity. (So my apologies to those who've heard some of this before.) And we've all been told by our doctors that it's all the meds we're on, as though going to cognative-behavioral boot camp is going to make this all better. But the comments of KS would appear to put that to the lie, as does the stufy from the "Pain and Pleasure Labratory" of A. Vania Apkarian, Ph.D. at Northwestern - perhaps the leading academic lab for the study of the neuroscience of pain in the United States - which is at the end of the post.

But to begin with the meds, Baclofen for one can be hard on short term memory. I knew that from prior experience while I was still trying to practive law and have it up after a day and a half. Over the last few years, I've been back in it, having blown through Zanaflex and been advised that it's the most effective drug out their for CNS induced spasms, in constrast to - say - Flexeril, which is designed for cramping secondary to local muscle tears and the like. Opioids can, of course, have their effects as well.

I'm on a lot of meds though, and niether Zanaflex nor Oxycontin should be contributing to the profound loss of organization ("executory function") I've experienced over the last year: where my consumption of meds has been stabile for years: but I'm told that "rare reactions" are possible. And while I got an overblown diagnosis of small vessel brain ischemia from a radiologist in August, and had an apparent TIA in September, a complete neurovascular workup at UCLA by a stroke specialist just came back clean, including any constriction of the arterioles, the small diameter blood vessels in microcirculation that extend and branch out from arteries and lead to capillaries:

Arterioles have thin muscular walls (usually only one to two layers of smooth muscle) and are the primary site of vascular resistance. Arterioles receive autonomic nervous system innervation and respond to various circulating hormones in order to regulate their diameter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arteriole

Schwartzman et al found that in a study of 656 patients had CRPS duration of greater than 1 year, found, among other things that:

More than half of the patients in this study reported cognitive and memory difficulties. Deficits in information processing48 and short-term memory49 have been reported in patients afflicted with chronic pain. Chronic pain has also been shown to impair working memory50 and decision-making.51 The disruption of cognitive performance in chronic pain patients could result from a number of factors such as pain medications,50 stress,52 the engagement of the prefrontal cortex by chronic pain,51 and the fact that pain may act as a distractor resulting in impairedworking memory.50

Notes
48. Grigsby J, Rosenberg NL, Busenbark D. Chronic pain is associated with deficits in information processing. Percept Mot Skills. 1995;81:403–410.
49. Ling J, Campbell C, Heffernan TM, et al. Short-term prospective memory deficits in chronic back pain patients. Psychosom Med. 2007;69:144–148.
50. D_i_c_k BD, Rashiq S. Disruption of attention and working memory traces in individuals with chronic pain. Anesth Analg. 2007;104:1223–1229.
51. Apkarian AV, Sosa Y, Krauss BR, et al. Chronic pain patients are impaired on an emotional decision-making task. Pain. 2004;108:129–136.
52. Patil PG, Apfelbaum JL, Zacny JP. Effects of a cold-water stressor on psychomotor and cognitive functioning in humans. Physiol Behav. 1995;58:1281–1286.

Schwartzman RJ, Erwin KL, Alexander GM, The Natural History of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Clin J Pain. 2009;25:273-280, 278, FREE FULL TEXT AT http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...lexanderGM.pdf

My hunch had been that it was a side effect of the sympathetic neurogenicvasoconstriction (and vasodilation in areas of edema, wahere water leeched out of the untoned blood vessels). See, e.g., J. Schattschneider, K. Hartung, M. Stengel, et al, Endothelial dysfunction in cold type complex regional pain syndrome, Neurology 2006; 67; 673-675, 674-65:

Microcirculation is regulated by neural and endothelial factors. Disturbances in thermoregulatory control of skin blood flow followed by a decrease in skin temperature due to enhanced vasoconstriction have been demonstrated in chronic stages of CRPS.7 It is assumed that in cold type CRPS patients, peripheral vasoconstriction results in tissue hypoxia and tissue acidosis. 2,3 The production of free radicals within the ischemic limb may be responsible for the endothelial dysfunction observed in the present study and the histopathologic changes observed by others.8 This process may induce a vicious cycle of impaired perfusion, hypoxia, and acidosis followed by the production of even more free radicals. [Italics in original.]*

Notes
2. Birklein F, Weber M, Ernst M, Riedl B, Neundorfer B, Handwerker HO, Experimental tissue acidosis leads to increased pain in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Pain 2000;87:227–234.
3. Koban M, Leis S, Schultze-Mosgau S, Birklein F. Tissue hypoxia in complex regional pain syndrome. Pain 2003;104:149–157.
7. Wasner G, Schattschneider J, Heckmann K, Maier C, Baron R. Vascular abnormalities in reflex sympathetic dystrophy (CRPS I): mechanisms and diagnostic value. Brain 2001;124:587–599.
8. van der Laan L, ter Laak HJ, Gabreels-Festen A, Gabreels F, Goris RJ. Complex regional pain syndrome type I (RSD): pathology of skeletal muscle and peripheral nerve. Neurology 1998;51:20–25.

However, when I was tested at UCLA with transcranial Doppler under a CO2 challenge, my "Pulsiltility Index" was within nomal limits, e.g., there was no evidence that the arterioles in the brain failed to dilate properly when presented with a loss of O2. And while my neuologist has advised me that the transcranial Doppler is not as reliable as the "Gold Standard" test of CT angiogram, I have to discuss the "risk/reward" scenario with my internist, where I've had my share of nuclear medicine studies over the last few years.

Finally, there remains the area of gray matter loss secondary to chronic pain in general, and CRPS in particular. See, e.g., Geha PY, Baliki MN, Harden RN, Bauer WR, Parrish TB, Apkarian AV, The Brain in Chronic CRPS Pain: Abnormal Gray-White Matter Interactions in Emotional and Autonomic Regions, Neuron 2008;60:570-581, 577-578, FREE FULL TEXT AT http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...aliki_etal.pdf

Conclusions
We provide several lines of evidence indicating that the patient with CRPS has multiple pathological changes of the brain. We observe global disorganization of the relationship between gray and white matter in these subjects. Regional gray matter atrophy seems limited to brain regions that can be related to these patients’ deficits in emotional decision-making and abnormal sympathetic outflow. Regional white matter anisotropy was observed in a bundle in the hemisphere contralateral to the gray matter atrophy, where long distance connections and branching patterns were reduced. The interrelationship between gray matter atrophy and white matter connectivity provided evidence for both decreased long distance connectivity and regional increases and decreases in connectivity and branching patterns. These results suggest that the abnormal anatomy of the CRPS brain may underlie many of the autonomic, cognitive, and pain abnormalities seen in this pernicious syndrome.

While the article is technical and taxing in spots, most of the terms that are used are dedined in it, and those that aren't can be accessed using the Medline Medical Dictionary at the top of the NT page. If you are not aleady familiar with area of this work, I suggest that you look it over now. It may well be the answer to the question this thread has posed. And as such, it makes potential cures like ketamine (which I can't have due to pre-existing glaucoma) and maybe even RUL ECT (illegal for the treatment of chronic pain in California since a 1976 voter initiative campaign) look a heck of a lot less radical, all things considered.

Mike

* If anyone wants a copy of this one (for personal, non-commercial use) just drop me a PM with your email address.

To link to that thread and in particular the ensuing discussion (and citations) relating to some unique brain changes in CRPS patients that may influence memory, when compared to people suffering from other chronic pain conditions - Posts 9 & 11 - go to http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread113499.html

I am sad to say that I too am suffering from this symptom. It is one of the most scary symptoms that I have, to be honest. I feel like I'm losing my mind some days. I do forget things occasionally, but it's affected me the most in word selection. I'll be in the middle of a sentence & simply cannot place the word I want to use. It's quite frustrating to me, as I am young & was relatively healthy before all of this hit me.

I would say that I suspect the medicine, but I started out on Neurontin/Effexor and over time have switched to Lyrica/nortriptyline, and the issues have not changed, so I really don't know. I have read that it is a symptom of the CRPS itself, but I'd prefer to blame it on the meds. I just really don't know.

As you all know, my 16 year old daughter has RSD, and she takes nothing for pain. But, she has brain fog all the time. I think it is a symptom of RSD. When she is in a flare the brain fog pretty bad. So, I am just adding another aspect to the brain fog.
:hug:Sandy

Thanks Mike for sharing all your work with the rest of us. It's awesome how much we have benefitted from your research efforts.

I've been on a sick leave from work since last summer - and not just because I was getting physically sicker. That was definitely a big part of it. But also - I was starting to make mistakes. I work on complex analytical stuff all day. And some kind of "brain fog" was setting in. (meds, RSD, exhaustion...??)

I was lucky that I found the errors before someone else did.

XOXOX Sandy

me either
 

I am only on topamax. wc wont pay for anything and i cant really afford my meds.. and i dont have anything that helps right now.. so i just take the topamax.. was on lyrica july of last year.. it helps and will be back on it again hopefully soon when the case is over.. but i also forget words i am trying to say.. so its really called brain rot huh.. well i was trying to figure out what to call it.. well its better than just being tarded i guess.lol.. it makes me feel stupid.. cant wait til deposition training, thats going to be so much fun..lmao. going to forget everything right after i do it.. but it might be kind of fun..hehe.. atleast i am not alone and can laugh about it now..but the forgetting where i am or seeing things differently scares me.. what if i forget to stop at a stop light or stop sign with my kids in the car or something? and my kids get hurt? there has to be something they can do for us right? just things like that worry me.. me im expendable.. im 35. that sounds depressing i know. but im more worried bout my children then i am myself..i dont want them to suffer cuz i got hurt anymore than they have to.. they do now cuz i got hurt and lost my job and lost my house and in debt up to my eyeballs and my hubby lost his job all within 8 months time. but still,,

Dear Barbara -

I am so sorry to hear of your circumstances. No one should have to suffer for WC not paying for basic medications! Please check out NT's "Layoffs, Unemployment and Worker's Compensation" at http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum30.html If you don't have a WC lawyer get one ASAP. (It's my understanding that most of them work on a contingency basis, but don't hold me to that.)

Similarly, you should be vigorously pursuing both state and federal disability payments. I assume you're already doing this, but if not you should get on it ASAP. As a California resident, I forfeited what would have been something like 95% of my income [based on the quarter before I was injured] that would have been payable for a year, had I filed the moment my income started to drop after my injury. NT also has a forum on Social Security Disability at http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum30.html if you haven't been there
already.

Hand in there :grouphug:

Mike

attorneys
 

yes i do have lawyer actually.. and they are fighting for me.. they are great actually.. almost at depo stage. hired them last feb. the day i got fired.. they have helped me get treatment and everything.. helped me get bills paid.. right now trying to help me get ssi. they owe my quite a chunk of change.so they are trying to help me.. its been a long slow process it seems like, and when ur broke it seems like slower and longer..lol.. but that is almost over. then i have to go after the company i worked for. cuz they fired me due to allergic reaction to neurontin. that there doc gave me for (sprain)..lol i was getting treated pretty badly by wc doctors so i called a lawyer and he answered some questions and then i hired him..actually have a big firm.. a paralegal and attorney both handling my case.. meeting with them both wednesday afternoon.. really if i get frustrated i can call them and they help me.. they are like friends to be honest.. it seems strange that i have so much faith in them.. more trust in them than some of my family. i know thats horrible. but my family wants MONEY!!!

:winky:

I can erase the thought that the brain fog is totally caused by your medicines as I take NOTHING for my RSD..(bad tummy) and I am totally brain fogged.. Iam a case study within my self..As Sandy's daughter and I both don't take meds and as I read, Sandy agrees.. Now i am not saying meds dont play a part in it..but I have brain farts and loss all of the time..I have admitted and given into it as no doubt our limbric brains are invloved and I don't question it..will it get worse?? Not sure but in the mean time it is real, scarey but our life now...I sometimes worry as I drive if I will remember how to get back home.....

Kathy:grouphug:

Hi,
 

I'm with Kathy on this one. I am not on any major meds. Just Mitformin and was on Nexium but switching due to side effects.

The worst thing I have done in the past 2 months is forgot my daughters birthday. Jan. 28th. Laid in bed yesterday and remembered it. OMG, I felt bad. I never do that. I'm going to pick up up something today when I go out for her.I was involved in a small claims court that I spent 3 months on working on to win so I chalk some of it up to that but it's just my brainfog.

I forget appts. I forget to pay bills sometime. When I first started with RSD in 98 I was so bad that I couldn't have handled my own case. If I had, I would have done better then the lawyer I had.

I'm making an appt. today about my eyesight, it is getting really bad.

I chalk it up to the medical issues but when you have several it's hard to say. Fibro causes a lot of issues that we are talking about too.

Ada

Significant caveat re my prior post on brain fog/rot
 

I meant to post it last night, but too many things came up at home.

Be advised, however, that a steady diet of significant opioids (Methadone among them) can be associated with a loss of memory and executive functioning in the absence of ANY physical pain condition - as observed in folks with substance abuse problems - especially when taken with benzodiazepines such as Xanax.

Talk about not being able to win for loosing! More to follow.

Mike

I take it that this reverses once the meds are stopped?....

Hate to do this in a rush because I'm hustling to make it to an appointment on time, but appears the answer may not be as clear cut as we would like. For a study of what may be an extreme case, previously heavy heroin addicts, see, Prosser J, Cohen LJ, Steinfeld M et al, Neuropsychological functioning in opiate-dependent subjects receiving and following methadone maintenance treatment, Drug Alcohol Depend. 2006 Oct 1;84(3):240-7. Epub 2006 Mar 20, FREE FULL TEXT AT http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...nihms30979.pdf

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY 10003, USA. jprosser@chpnet.org

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: An accumulating body of research suggests that former heroin abusers in methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) exhibit deficits in cognitive function. Whether these deficits are present in former methadone maintained patients following discontinuation of MMT is unknown. This study tests the hypothesis that former heroin users who have detoxified from methadone maintenance therapy and are drug-free have less pronounced cognitive impairment than patients continuing long-term MMT.

METHOD: A series of neuropsychological tests were administered to three groups of subjects: 29 former heroin addicts receiving methadone maintenance treatment, 27 former heroin addicts withdrawn from all opiates, and 29 healthy controls without a history of drug dependence. Testing included Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised Vocabulary Test, the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, the Benton Visual Retention Test, and a Substance Use Inventory.

FINDINGS: Both methadone-maintained and abstinent subject groups performed worse than controls on tasks that measured verbal function, visual-spatial analysis and memory, and resistance to distractibility. Abstinent subjects performed worse than their methadone maintained counterparts on tests measuring visual memory and construct formation. Cognitive impairment did not correlate with any index of drug use.

CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed previous findings of neuropsychological impairment in long-term MMT recipients. Both patients receiving MMT and former heroin users in prolonged abstinence exhibited a similar degree of cognitive impairment. Cognitive dysfunction in patients receiving methadone maintenance may not resolve following methadone detoxification.

PMID: 16545923 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Hi peppermintpatty, I know what you are saying about having a loss of words, or groping for a word during a conversation.RSD affects the Limbic System of the Brain, which controls short term memory,decision making or judgment.It is very frustrating, but does explain why we have times of loss of words.
Welcome to NT. we are happy to have you as part of our compassionate family. Your new friend, loretta with big soft hugs:grouphug::grouphug:

Hi Babs, A lot of us have this groping for words, confusion and it is frustrating. There has been information on NT about the Limbic System of the brain that controls our short term memory, judgment decisions, etc. that explains why we have this. Hope this helps explain our missing of words while speaking. Take care and we are happy to have you with your NT family, your friend, loretta with big soft hugs :grouphug::grouphug:

Barbara ET All
 

Pain & Brain FOG - still looking for the article found. This one will do for now...
http://www.drlwilson.com/Articles/brain_fog.htm

Get an attorney ASAP everyone. Attorney's work on a 15% or more now retainer fee. And they dont jump through hoops. You still have to manage ur own case, then yell & scream. Its not easy. My case is going on 11 years with 2 or is it 3 dep's now with no end in site. Just recently the opposition reviewers (no medical shield, just office workers) are denying medications, procedures they having been providing for. I get all the medical references needed & still nothing gets done.

It is not you. It is ALL insurance company's including Medicare. Health care has been reformed without the American people being told. Letters have been sent out by AARP (who just received millions by the government), Veterans & Medicare patients denying procedures across the board. What was in the pipeline for surgical procedures is no longer being approved according to the letters. Everything is being cut by 20-21%. Physicians are being sent letters in addition to the patient telling them the insurance company is no longer approving a previous approval.

Would you like to pay cash or by credit card? big sigh..

crazy right
 

i know. its unheard of.. I met with both my attorneys this afternoon and they sound very promising.. my suit should be done hopefully this year.. but we going for full medical til i die. i wont settle for less. and it will drag on until i know for sure how much damage long term i am going to sustain.. We talked about that.. I will have a doctor keep checking me over regularly for progression.. I want coverage.. Out of pocket expeses is one thing, but meds are high dollar and i am still fairly young at 35. So we are talking very long term..Its written up now that i can only work part time and it sucks.. i love to work. enjoyed it alot. but thats just going to keep getting worse as this disease progresses. I was denied for ssi, first time through, so they are appealing for me.. So hopefully they will get that through, cuz im broke as broke can be..lol

Dear Cindy -

I understand your frustration, but cannot agree with a significant portion of what is said in the webpage you've linked to, written by one Lawrence Wilson, MD, in which every point is asserted without citation or reference of any kind, and by an author who has never practiced medicine, according to his own C.V. To tell the truth, he sounds as close to Adelle Davis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelle_Davis as anyone I've heard in long tiime.

In saying this, it is not my intention to be confrontational with you. But the site to which you have linked appears as a whole to be commercial in it's nature, and should be flagged as such.

Mike

Just curious - why? Are you saying everyone with CRPS, or everyone with CRPS who also suffers from brain fog, or just everyone who has any type of medical issue, should get an attorney? :confused:

wc
 

everyone who got hurt at work. peppermint.. i got hurt at work hun.. thats why hes saying that to me.. especially how they treated me.. alot of times it does happen at work and they mistreat you or misrepresent you.. you have to protect yourself at all costs. its expensive to treat..

Good catch peppermint. I was referring to patients hurt on the job. One track mind here. THANK YOU for bringing that statement to my attention. Appreciate it.

No confrontation taken Mike. You seem like the expert here. Just trying to help & I guess I didnt. Not being paid by the author to quote his url.

Hi peppermintpatty, It's good to have you with us. I know those lapses and grasping for words are so frustrating. I've had RSD 15 years, and it's my opinion this is due to the disorder and not meds. It's because RSD affects part of the brain called the limbic system. That controls short term memory, and decision making process. There has been much written on it. Perhaps, looking up Limbic System would help.
Dr. Hooshmand on rsdrx.com has a lot to say. He practiced 40 years-RSD and on his website at puzzles list-there are 146 questions and his answers. I know he discusses this. He is retired, but has referred patients to another Florida Dr.
Take care, and let us know how you are doing, loretta with soft hugs:grouphug::grouphug:

Brain Fog
 

I am having serious memory word finding and problem solving troubles. The other day I couldnt remember what day of the week it was and it sent me into a panic for about a minute....it is really bad!!

debhub.

I agree. IT SUCKS! I have a hard time finding the "right" words for the most mundane things. Makes me feel like I'm losing my mind.

and the worse part is,,,,
 

I am a speech therapist working with adults who have cognitive and word finding difficulty-lol

Thank you for clarifying. I suppose I can always blame my confusion on brain fog! :cool:

I appreciate your sharing this. Very interesting indeed.

deb,
*ROFLOL* that is a good one...............so let me see.......I take it that all the little quirks & tricks you teach one don't especially work???? *LOL* just teasing you............

Going on let's see 8 yrs here soon myself.........and the word game......YIKES!! I have to tell people the words meaning & then they give me the right word that I want to use *LOL* hubby is really good at that one.........

And for short term memory........well mine got really bad after back surgery (L5 to S1 fused, this after a fusion of L2-L4 in '05) last June 1st. I lost most of that day, due to surgery, along with June 2nd, 3rd & most of the 4th..........completely. I remember absolutely nothing of those days....NOTHING!! I ended up in a 'catatonic like state' I believe it might be called. I remember a little of that Monday evening & I was in such pain I begged them to let me die &/or to kill me cause I couldn't live that way. The pain was burning feet & due to the type of surgery cramps & muscle spasms in buttocks & down both legs. I couldn't stop crying & the pain was so bad I kept throwing up. I truly did want to die. The hospital doc that had my care thought I was a closet alcoholic on top of it. Sometime that night after 10pm, cause that is when my hubby went home, I went into this 'state' & I remember nothing until late afternoon Thursday. I was told that they thought they gave me too much pain medication so they stripped me of all meds & more than that even with some drug (can't remember the name of it). I went into this 'state' & where, when Jack came in, I didn't know who he was nor Seth, my son, nor even who I was. They all thought I would end up in a psych hospital for maybe the rest of my life. I was cussing everyone out, I wouldn't leave my nightgown down or stay covered up. It was like I didn't know what I was doing or saying........well I guess I didn't. They stripped so much essential 'stuff' out of me they had to give me insulin shots(I am not diabetic), thyroid medication(my thyroid is fine), blood pressure meds(I don't have high BP), potassium, & magnesium even thru my IV & oral vitamins once I could swallow again. Wed morning I tried to get out of bed & managed to do so & fell. They did a head CT & I was cleared. They were suppose to be watching me closely as I was in observation when I fell, then in ICU afterwards. They finally called a Neurologist in & he said to put me back on my pain meds (morphine). Idiot, the doc who had me, thought I was on too high a dose of morphine, it's what he told me on Friday. He still didn't have me up to my reg dose when I left. Did my feet hurt? yep. Did my back? nope. I didn't eat for all those days until Sat. Jack said when he looked into my eyes on Tuesday, I was not there.......I was just gone. After I started to come around (after they got me back on some morphine) it took me until Sat to tell them who the president was & I think the only reason I knew for sure was I had seen him on TV that morning. It took me until late Friday to get the day right. Until Sat to tell them the name of the hospital I was in & what city I was in. I wasn't able to eat or hardly drink I guess even after I started to come out of it, everything tasted nasty, like metal(I lost 12lbs). I could barely hold a conversation with anyone until late Sat. The nurses said they had never seen anyone come out that type of 'state' as fast as I did. Well anyway, my whole point of this is that since then my short term memory is just GONE for the most part. I forget ust about everything short term. I will forget to check email for over a week sometimes even. If I don't write notes it can get bad. I got us over drawn cause I forgot to do the bank statements even. And when I was signing out of the hospital I forgot how to write my whole last name. Took me a week after to get it right. That whole week is scarey for me to think about. It is like looking back into a black hole....those 4 days are a black hole for me!!! That is what it must be like for a coma patient to wake up & not remember anything ........to look back & see but a black hole. I can understand why they would wake up scared out of their wits. You don't think any time has elapsed but it has.

Well........... anyway.....hang on to what you got for short term memory cause kids it can be worse........way worse.............mine scares me anymore. I am hoping I don't forget to ask my doc in the morning before I have an SGB some very pertinent questions. I have been going over it & over it in my head so I don't forget. I could easily make a nightmare out of this short term memory thing..........

Sorry for all the rambling...........
Debby

wow
 

omg debby.. so so sorry to hear about your experience.. I hope you can forget about it and get over it.. I know easier said that done.... The short term memory loss does seem so trivial compared to that.. Its just scarey sometimes.. The littlest things that seem to upset us all.. I hope you never ever have to go through that again.. It would be horrible the first time.. My heart goes out to you and your family..:grouphug:

Dear Debby -

I am so sorry to hear what you have been going through. May your amazing recovery continue.

The stuff they gave you might have been Nalaxone HCL (which used to be marketed as Narcan before it went generic) or a close cousin. Orally, it can be a wonder drug when taken in very small amounts with opioids: it strengthens the pain killing effect of just a small amount of the narcotic, thereby preventing/minimizing GI complications. But given iv, it cancels alll "mu-opioids" in your system instantly, and if you've built up a tollerance over time (as have most of us) it's supposed to be brutal. Sounds like it was and then some. Idiot doctor!!!

:grouphug:

much love,
Mike

Debby,

Thanks for sharing your story with us. How scary for you. We think we can trust our doctors to take proper care of us, its so sad that its just not the case. I'm so sorry. It gives all of us something to consider should we ever need to be hospitalized.

I just finished reading "A Body Broken" by Lynne Greenberg last week. She had a lot of issues with pain meds and addiction because of her chronic pain. A great read!! And something that you would relate to 100%.

Thanks again for the heads up XOXOX Sandy

Thanks everyone...........it means alot. And yes it was brutal for my family to go thru. As for me, the brutal part is knowing how bad it was for my family to go thru it & in looking back that I actually lost all those days & remember nothing. My surgeon said it was probably a good thing. Also when I came out it the pain I had from my back was gone too. So the surgery was a success in that respect. I mean it was in all my records the meds there of what I take, how much & how often. And he still kept saying after I came too that it was too high a dose even for RSD. He was NOT my PC doc. Mine doesn't have privileges in the valley (Sacramento, just up in the foothills hospital & the surgery had to be done down there.

Well I kept forgetting how to write my last name today at the Surgi clinic where I had the SGB done. I kept leaving the 'i' out of my last name & I had to sign alot of papers & the more I signed the worse it got. Now that is the first time that has happened since last June. The thing is I knew where that 'i' went & I just kept forgetting to put the darn thing my signature. And I haven't told anyone even my husband. When I am a really old woman I wonder how bad it will be then *LOL*

atleast its just the little things to worry about right now.. later on are the bigger concerns.. But a friend told me, months ago to live one day at a time.. thats they only way to survive this. and she was very right on.. and thats all we can hope to do.. :grouphug:

I have this problem too. I will be driving down the road and forget where I'm going forget that I did drop my daughter off at the babysitters. Then I will be talking to someone and stop in mid sentence and forget what we were just talking about. I was on lyrica I took myself off I didn't like the way it made me feel. I'm just trying to cope with the pain w/o meds not really having luck with it. But am trying and really have to try now since I just got a job.

yea me too. Im a cashier at walmart. And i forget alot of things. Im trying to retrain my brain. Its helping but not much. But its a process i go through.just so i can feel good about myself. I need to work to do that right now. I love working. havent accepted being disabled yet.