Memory Problems?
 

Hi all! I'm a first time poster. After reading through all of the helpful questions and responses here, I'm hoping to get some insight on what I've been going through.

A quick overview to start:

I fell on April 20, 2013. I was recovering from abdominal surgery (a 7-hour robotic surgery to remove some uterine fibroids) and got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I remember feeling dizzy, but the fall is a blur. The next thing I remember is my partner helping me off the floor. We didn't think too much about it at the time -- I kept saying I hit my butt on the floor first and we didn't know if I'd blacked out -- so we went to bed.

The next morning, I started feeling nauseated and I could barely walk straight. I was slurring my words a little, but I insisted that I didn't want to go to the ER. My partner, a medical student, kept trying to get me to go, but I just wanted to sleep. He didn't want to make me more upset, and I think he was hoping I'd wake up and be fine the next morning too!

On Monday, I started falling asleep when I was sitting up in bed and I was still unable to walk without help. He packed up my stuff and drove me to the ER. I had a CT (clear) and an MRI (clear). The neurologist at the ER said it sounded like a concussion. I had some weakness on my left side, and I was still falling asleep when I was sitting up, but the doctors said it was probably just fatigue. I was ordered to follow-up with a primary care physician and neurologist in the next few weeks.

While I waited to see the doctors, I was still having some symptoms. I had the constant low-grade headache that was made worse by light and noise. My left eye was prickly, as if someone had a toothpick and was pushing the backside of my eyeball out through my socket. I was constantly nauseated, especially after I ate. I forgot where I was a couple of times, and I wouldn't remember what I was doing mid-action. There were many times I would get undressed and walk into the bathroom to shower only to start cleaning the bathroom or doing laundry...

Then one night I lost about four years of my memory. I woke up from a nap and thought I was still living in my old apartment in Rhode Island (I moved to Michigan in 2011), and I didn't recognize my partner. I didn't know what year it was, and I kept insisting that I wanted to talk to my ex-boyfriend (who I thought was my current boyfriend). At a loss, my boyfriend finally called my dad to see if that would calm me down. I started crying and telling my dad that I'd been kidnapped. Needless to say, it was a long couple of hours...

And then, about two hours after it started, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I had no memory of any of this happening. I was perfectly calm, recognized where I was, and just thought I'd been sleeping peacefully since the night before. There were a few other small incidents with memory issues, but they usually resolved with sleep.

I've also suffered from aphasia on multiple occasions. I would either wake up and not be able to speak or I'd space out for a few seconds and the words would then come out slow and garbled. I'm a talker, so it was always easily noted when it happened. As with the memory stuff, it usually went away with a few hours of sleep.

I saw the neurologist (who's been called the "best in the state" by multiple other doctors I've seen) on May 16, 2013. He ordered an MRI (clear) and an EEG (clear) to rule out seizures as the cause for my falling. He never mentioned PCS, but he said that everything sounded in-line with a concussion. He told me to sleep as much as I could, rest as much as I could, and we'd follow-up at the end of August.

My current symptoms seem pretty standard PCS -- headache, light sensitivity, poor concentration/focus, fatigue, and dizziness upon changing positions. As a student who's supposed to be writing my dissertation, the cognitive stuff is the most challenging, but I'm slowly learning to cope and I still haven't give up hope that this is all temporary. It's only been 3 months and a few weeks since my fall, so I'm a relative newbie compared to most of you veterans.

My less common symptoms are related to my memory problems. I regularly can't remember the last 12-72 hours. When I wake up in the morning, the last 2-3 days are wiped clean -- I can piece together what I've done by looking through my journal, my texts, and my email (I send myself notes when I think to do it), but I have no independent memory of the last couple of days. Over the next 48 hours to a week, some things come back, but they're more like snapshots than moving memories, if that makes sense, and the memories that are there of the time before that are out of sequence.

For example, I remember that I went to the doctor on Monday because there's a receipt for my co-pay on my desk, but I don't remember anything from the visit except that the doctor was wearing a blue shirt. Even though we spent over an hour in his office, I couldn't pick him out of a line-up to save my life!

My partner (who comes with me to every appointment) and my parents (who I usually call immediately after any appointments for this reason) are able to fill me in on the important stuff, but this is definitely my scariest symptom to date.

I know a lot of people note that their memory is worse, but I'm not talking about lost keys or a misplaced cell phone -- I don't remember going to the grocery store, going to visit a friend, going to a doctor's appointment, playing cards, etc. I don't remember anything. I hung some art on the wall and the next morning I thanked my partner for being such a helpful guy.

Currently, I'm not taking any medications, but I am taking fish oil, B-12, B-Complex, D, and Niacin. I'm eating well (with the occasional slip-up of sugar). I'm avoiding caffeine, MSG, etc. I've been getting a lot of sleep, but I do have 2-3 nights a week when I have trouble falling asleep. Luckily, I'm a grad student and I'm able to work remotely right now, so my days are mine -- I can catch up on sleep when I need to.

Any thoughts or comments regarding the memory issues would be much appreciated. I'm a little concerned because it doesn't seem to be a common symptom with mTBI from what I've been reading here and on the Facebook group I joined last month. My neurology follow-up isn't for another three weeks, and I was just wondering if anyone else had this problem or had suggestions about what I could do to address it.

And now I need a nap. This post took almost two hours to write and I'm exhausted!!

Thank you for reading!

Hi and welcome to NeuroTalk.

Memory problems are common with TBI's. My TBI was over two years ago; I was injured the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2010 and I still have no memory of that weekend.

I was in ICU for a month and have no clear memory of that time. The memories I do have from then are things that never actually happened, such as I believed they moved my house to the plaza where my office was. My neuropsychologist called these false memories confabulations.

Memory will typically improve. Five months after my injury I was tested by a clinical neuropsychologist and my memory tested as normal at that time. Three plus months probably seems like a long time but in TBI recovery it really isn’t that long. After your next neurology follow up, consider a referral to a clinical neuropsychologist for a neuropsychological assessment if memory is still giving you problems. These can be expensive but if you have health insurance it may be covered (mine was).

Best to you as you recover.

Thank you!
 

Thanks, Lightrail. It seems like neuropsych testing is next on my list of things to do.

I appreciate your response to my exceptionally long post. I didn't realize how long it was until I re-read it now!

Hi Amy,

No problem with the length of the post, the more information posted the better we can understand what you are going through. You did a nice job of separating your post into "bite sized" sections which makes it much easier to read and understand.

I should have mentioned that my memory problems gradually improved during the two to five month period after my injury. I remembered faces but had problems with remembering names. I would frequently forget things I said and would repeat myself often. I asked my wife and others around me to let me know when I did this, and that was helpful. I also did math flash card exercises, this helped me remember things like how to do simple addition and multiplication problems (like in grade school).

This is where the neuro psych evaluation can be helpful. It can identify specific deficit areas, and allow the neuropsychologist to recommend specific therapy treatments. I found speech and occupation therapy sessions extremely valuable in this regard.

Wishing you a steady and complete recovery.

Amy,

You might benefit from talking with a sleep disorders specialist. You may not be getting any REM sleep. Google REM sleep disorder.

I have my worst days after bad nights sleep. My wife can tell I will have a bad day by how she observes me sleeping when she gets up.

My best to you.