[SpaceCadet]

This is probably the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I took 200mg of Gabapentin around 6pm and then another 200mg at about 10pm. After the second dosage I took, I was feeling very drowsy and out of it. So I layed down and went to sleep. I posted before about having mini-panic attacks while falling asleep, and how Gaba was helping with those. Well..this time it didn't. I had about 3 of them before I finally fell asleep. About an hour or two in to my sleep, I wake up and I have complete amnesia. Didn't know my name, where I was, my son's name or anything. I started to panic and I struggled to remember things...slowly things started coming back. Then I became really confused...really confused. Now I'm laying here in my bed completely terrified to go back to sleep. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and not have my memory for good.

Is it the Gabapentin doing this, or could it be from PCS? Is it possible to develop amnesia this far after a brain injury?

[Mark in Idaho]

Nick,

It sounds like you may have sleep apnea. If you stop breathing while you sleep, you brain gets deprived of oxygen and many functions become problematic.

You need someone to watch you sleep and see how you are breathing. Sleep apnea could easily be a big part of your current symptoms. Central apnea can be the result of an upper neck/brain stem injury that gets inflamed from time to time causing your intermittent problems.

I know the terror from sleep apnea.

My best to you.

[SpaceCadet]

Sleep apnea is one of the things I came across last night while frantically searching the internet for answers. I was up until 5am after I was rudely waken up with no memory. I'm going to ask my fiance to monitor my breathing while I sleep tonight.

I'm still shaken up and very groggy after waking up this morning. I can hardly talk and still having memory issues. Wonder if its a hangover from taking a larger dose of Gabapentin?

Thanks again, Mark.

[SpaceCadet]

Question for you, Mark. If there was some damage done to my brain stem, wouldn't that show up on the MRI?

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a chiropractor for an evaluation.

I'm determined to get to the bottom of all this. I still need to get treatment for my acute sinusitis, as I've read that can cause some pretty strange symptoms.

[Mark in Idaho]

An MRI can only see items the size of a BB or a bit smaller, maybe down to a millimeter if the MRI is high power. They can not see the microscopic damage to cells.

Brain stem injuries are often not a severe damage but rather a dysfunction that arises from inflammation in the area. If a brain stem injury was more than that, you would be permanently disabled by it.

The inflammation that can arise from cervical vertebra and the associated connective tissue can come and go with posture and other factors. be very careful with chiropractors. Some are overly aggressive with the neck and like to twist and pop more violently that an injured neck may tolerate. That is why some of us have turned to Upper Cervical Chiropractors and their much more gentle and focused techniques.

I doubt your gabapentin dose has any effect on your memory. Your breathing will have a very big impact on your memory. Your brain needs to sleep with a good supply of oxygen to properly reformat the events of the previous day. Without this good oxygenated brain functioning, you brain acts like a desk covered with scrap paper notes all mixed up.

The key function of your brain during sleep is to clean up the previous days desk top of scrap paper with memories written on it and file them away in an organized fashion so there is room on the desk for a next day's worth of memories.

Anxiety makes that heap of scrap paper even more chaotic to sort out. The brain wants to get things sorted out or it will just continue to overload.

[SpaceCadet]

Very well put, thanks.

All day I've been concerned with what happened last night. My memory has been really off all day, I even tried taking 2 naps during the day to see if it would help. I woke up from both the naps with mild amnesia, feeling very lost. I'm starting to think I'm developing Alzheimer's. I know that sounds crazy to throw that out there and it could just be my anxiety, but something really feels wrong to me. I think its time to schedule another appointment with the neurologist.

I've been in bed for the past 2 hours trying to fall asleep but the fear that last night and todays incidents put in me won't let me. Ugh. I was going to take my last Ativan but that stuff does a number on the memory. Don't want to make the situation worse.