Other stuff that probably doesn't help...
...and I wouldn't have really thought about it but a friend mentioned it to me. I seem to be missing a faculty or two insofar as my brain is concerned. They're things that don't seem as though they would make a difference but they do make me wonder what I HAVEN'T picked up on.
Every so often, when I'm in the company of others, I find myself wondering where the heck they went. I look around, get up and try to find them and then, if I'm worried enough, I call them. Once they mention it, I DO remember them telling me that they were going to the store or whatever. But if they didn't tell me, I'd think they were missing. I attributed that to getting older. I also blame age for the fact that when they put words on the TV, subtitles or weather alerts, I can't finish reading them before they take the words down. When I was in elementary school, they took me out of my reading class to go, by myself, to the learning center where they would stick me in a dark closet and I would sit there on a chair, reading the sentences that rolled past me from a projector behind me. After I read the story, I would take an SRA quiz and then they'd stick me back in the closet and run another story, only faster. After another quiz, the same cycle continued. They were amazed not only at the speed of my reading, but my comprehension of what I read. In college, I always finished exams first because I was so fast at reading and making the correct decisions that I graduated summa cum laude. Now I can't keep up with the subtitles in The Lord of the Rings when the elf's speak elvish.
A few times a week, I find myself lying on the bed or sitting on the couch and I have no idea how I got there. I attributed that to petit mal seizures.
A few other minor things occur and most of them, and the ones I already mentioned, began after my last stroke. Things like loss of balance, left-sided weakness and sudden onset stuttering can annoy the dickens out of me but they don't really worry me too much, I just adapt my behavior and get around these things.
Some things can't be blamed on age or strokes like the fact that I have hallucinations. Auditory mostly but some are olfactory and sensory. I've had them since I was in my 20's. They scared me at first, but I realize they're not there so after I say, "What?", I go on about my day. I'm so used to them that I don't think I've mentioned it to a doctor. Actually, I only mentioned it to some Jehovah's Witnesses and they didn't believe me so I pretty much just keep it to myself. Nowadays they might perplex me for a moment, but I figure it out quickly, I don't lose touch with reality although sometimes I wish I could.
These are all things that I just deal with, they've become second nature to me. But as I said earlier...what am I missing?
Every so often, when I'm in the company of others, I find myself wondering where the heck they went. I look around, get up and try to find them and then, if I'm worried enough, I call them. Once they mention it, I DO remember them telling me that they were going to the store or whatever. But if they didn't tell me, I'd think they were missing. I attributed that to getting older. I also blame age for the fact that when they put words on the TV, subtitles or weather alerts, I can't finish reading them before they take the words down. When I was in elementary school, they took me out of my reading class to go, by myself, to the learning center where they would stick me in a dark closet and I would sit there on a chair, reading the sentences that rolled past me from a projector behind me. After I read the story, I would take an SRA quiz and then they'd stick me back in the closet and run another story, only faster. After another quiz, the same cycle continued. They were amazed not only at the speed of my reading, but my comprehension of what I read. In college, I always finished exams first because I was so fast at reading and making the correct decisions that I graduated summa cum laude. Now I can't keep up with the subtitles in The Lord of the Rings when the elf's speak elvish.
A few times a week, I find myself lying on the bed or sitting on the couch and I have no idea how I got there. I attributed that to petit mal seizures.
A few other minor things occur and most of them, and the ones I already mentioned, began after my last stroke. Things like loss of balance, left-sided weakness and sudden onset stuttering can annoy the dickens out of me but they don't really worry me too much, I just adapt my behavior and get around these things.
Some things can't be blamed on age or strokes like the fact that I have hallucinations. Auditory mostly but some are olfactory and sensory. I've had them since I was in my 20's. They scared me at first, but I realize they're not there so after I say, "What?", I go on about my day. I'm so used to them that I don't think I've mentioned it to a doctor. Actually, I only mentioned it to some Jehovah's Witnesses and they didn't believe me so I pretty much just keep it to myself. Nowadays they might perplex me for a moment, but I figure it out quickly, I don't lose touch with reality although sometimes I wish I could.
These are all things that I just deal with, they've become second nature to me. But as I said earlier...what am I missing?
posted by Meg Kelso | 9:48 AM
3 Comments:
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My sense is you're probably right about the seizures, Meg. The rest also sounds a lot like my post-stroke stuff and others I know who've also had strokes.
Some years back, I guy I knew well and I were having a conversation. I noted previously sometimes he seemed to kind of (very subtly) "space out" for maybe 30 sec. or a bit longer here and there. When I asked him about my observations he said sheepishly something like, "Yeah, that's been going on for years-sorry!" I suggested he get a work-up to r/o petit mal seizures and sure 'nough, that was it. (And he had been driving all these years-scary!) More interestingly yet, he also mentioned the olfactory and sensory experiences you mentioned-AND the whole reading thing as well! This stuff went back to his childhood.
Ms. Meg, I know you don't wish to return to "Bed Pan Alley" but IMO, it would be well worth getting a Neuro Eval. I know you've been dealing with a whole lot of stress lately but with these other symptoms, simply being preoccupied wouldn't result in these manifestations and certainly not so consistently. The only other possibility that comes to mind is your meds-especially for the newer symptoms and particularly if you've started some new ones/had any increases in the last 6/8 mo. Sometimes it really does take awhile for those side effects to manifest, yk?
Hopefully, you can get a referral from your Primary.
TW
You have no idea how much I despise bed-pan alley. They don't do anything except treat my headache and help me to walk with a walker...as soon as I do, they send me home and of course I refuse to use it, just as I was shocked that hoveround dude used his hoveround. I would think that a man would have a STRONGER sense of pride than a I, who art merely a feeble woman :), possess when in public.
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