Forgetting Important Things

[Carrigon]

I forgot how old I was today. Really forgot what age I am. I had to look it up on two different birthday calculator sites just to be sure. Total CFIDS dementia. And then I forgot a bunch of other things I should have known. It's only been the last few weeks I've been forgetting stuff. I used to get the memory loss, but then it went away for quite awhile. And now it's back again.

My doctor thinks I'm having menopause symptoms, and I know sometimes the memory does get affected with that. But I don't know. I've been in a massive flare up all week and my IBS has been bad since Thanksgiving. Something is causing it.

I'm just so tired of being in pain and not being able to do anything, and getting the memory thing on top is not good.

I almost put batteries in the fridge yesterday. That's how gone my brain is. Good thing I caught that.

 

[alex3619]

Hi Carrigon, I strongly suspect this is not memory loss, nor is it dementia. I have the same problem. Even twenty-five years ago I was forgetting medical appointments that were important to me. Now I forget all kinds of stuff, and things just are not getting done anymore. My suspicion is this is a recall problem, that the memories exist, even if poor by usual standards, but our capacity to recall them, to re-integrate the pieces of memory in the brain, has severe problems. Bye, Alex

 

[heapsreal]

I forgot how old I was today. Really forgot what age I am. I had to look it up on two different birthday calculator sites just to be sure. Total CFIDS dementia. And then I forgot a bunch of other things I should have known. It's only been the last few weeks I've been forgetting stuff. I used to get the memory loss, but then it went away for quite awhile. And now it's back again.

My doctor thinks I'm having menopause symptoms, and I know sometimes the memory does get affected with that. But I don't know. I've been in a massive flare up all week and my IBS has been bad since Thanksgiving. Something is causing it.

I'm just so tired of being in pain and not being able to do anything, and getting the memory thing on top is not good.

I almost put batteries in the fridge yesterday. That's how gone my brain is. Good thing I caught that.

Thats ok im 24!

 

[Valentijn]

I have the same problem. Periodically I have to do the math to figure out how old I am. After doing that a few times, I tend to remember it better. But not always

 

[heapsreal]

i STRUGGLE WITH MEMORY RECALL UNLESS I CAN RELATE IT TO SOMETHING, IF ITS OUT OF THE BLUE LIKE SOMEONE LOPPING UP ON MY DOOR STEP, I WOULD STRUGGLE WITH REMEMBERING THERE NAME EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE VERY FAMILIAR TO ME. bUT IF THEY SAID THEY WERE IN MY GRADE 4 CLASS WITH MRS SO AN SO ETC WITH A STORIE, I MAYBE BE ABLE TO RECALL A NAME. wE SEEM TO BE ABLE TO RECALL CERTAIN THINGS BUT HAVE PROBLEMS PUTTING IT INTO WORDS I GUESS??

wHEN SOMEONE WORKS IT OUT, LET ME KNOW SO I CAN TELL SO AN SO?

CHEERS!!!

 

[Athene]

I frequently forget how old I am!! I think that's fairly normal actually, lots of people tell me they do that.

I agree with with Alex that this is a recal problem, the brain is fine inside. One of the most important nutrients for memory formation AND recall of information is choline. I take 1,000 mg a day and it helps a great deal.

I had reached the point where I could not recognise people, apart from my immediate family (whom I nearly always addressed by the wrong name, which was often not even gender-appropriate). Every time I felt the house I would be accosted by people, having no idea who they were, who would ask me all kinds of questions I could not answer, clearly knew my whole life story, and I had not the faintest idea who they were.
I had to keep a notepad by the phone and write down every single thing anyone told me otherwise there was no chance I would remember it. When my husband got home from work, we would go through the messages together, and not only did I not recal those people calling, I usually could not remember writing the messages and sometimes had trouble understanding what I had written.
This was on top of all the usual things like repeatedly going into a room then having no idea why I went there, not knowing where I had put any object if it was not in its proper "home", never remembering any appointment at all, etc.

It was terrifyingto be like that, especially when several people suggested they thought I might have premature Alzheimers.
So anyway I would give the choline a go, it cannot do you any harm. After about a month on it I realised I had made great improvements. My memory is not perfect but I can function normally.

I also read fairly recently that when people lack acetylcholine (the neurotransmitter that the body makes from choline) they lack have great difficulty making decisions. I had not noticed that but I realised that I had also become much more decisive, the way I used to be, after being on choline for a while.

 

[heapsreal]

does anyone else forget replying to certain threads here and dont remember until reading them the next day??

 

[Enid]

If it's any help I used to have severe memory loss (once asked my name in a gathering and spent quarter of an hour to recall). Very ill at that time and since memory and thought speeded up know it has nothing to do with any dementias. No real answer though except rest - various ME protocols - do only as able etc. to get better. Seems to be healing going on in the brain cells too. I'd say don't worry it makes the situation far worse.

(Also recall not recognising things/people around at the time - no problems now).

 

[currer]

Dont be frightened Carrigon, these memory problems are part of ME. We are not developing dementia. I know many long term sufferers and no-one has developed alzheimers.

I used to be unable to read, and I realised it was because I had forgotten the first clauses in a sentence by the time I had read to the end of that sentence.

Memory problems are really there, but you do not have dementia. I spend all my time trying to remember what I came into the room to do, and needing to retrace my steps to remember - three or four times a day! If you asked me what happened yesterday - I would not be able to tell you without hard thought, and maybe not even then.

These problems come and go. I notice it posting. Sometimes it is a real struggle to write anything - at other times - easy.

 

[hurtingallthetimet]

my short term memory is very bad..the long term is ok..ive asked the doctors how short term could be so bad but long term good..if i will get to point where i dont have any memorys..the doctor never really said just said that alot of people with fibro/cfs which is what i have...taht they have memory problems..

i forget my age, i forget words i want to say..like one day i wanted to say something tasted like "cherry flavor" but all i could see is the color red and say something tasted "red"...

the worse is hte dangerous things that i forget..ive left candle burning all night..ive left food on stove boiling..ive went to turn on burner on stove to cook and it not light but it was on and left the gas running from it...ive gottne in bath tub with socks on...ive forgotten where im driving to and once what side of road to drive on..ive done alot...but like i said its the dnagerous stuff that worries me becuase of my family..

ive worried and asked doctor if it was dementia but the doctor said no that they didnt think so...im too young to be in this much pain and fatigue and all the other things that come along with it..id love to be able to work again thats one of thnigs i miss the most becuase it always meant so much to me to do things for my kids but i know that i cant even answer phones or anything anymore or type i forget words..how to type words lots of typos...and i have to take medications that i cant take and drive...we lose so much from being ill...

 

[currer]

Hi hurtingallthetime,

Try not to frighten yourself over this. You say you have a family so you are almost certainly using up too much energy trying to look after them...and your memory problems are a symptom of your overdoing it. It sounds as if you are doing more than you should, but maybe it is not possible to change your life to do less. I am sure that with good quality rest your memory could improve - these problems are not permanent, but reversible.

Best wishes, Currer.

 

[ixchelkali]

I've noticed that my memory problems wax and wane like most of the other symptoms. Sometimes it gets really bad. My husband has dementia and at times his memory works better than mine (scary when I'm supposedly watching out for him). Like most ME/CFS symptoms, it gets worse when I overdo or if there's an added stressor, such as fighting an infection. The other cognitive difficulties tend to go along with it, like problems with word recall, spelling, arithmatic, spacial perceptions, concentration, multitasking, etc.

Something I've noticed is that sometimes it's a matter of recall, like the memory is there but I can't access it. I've learned that when my brain starts working again, the memory will be there waiting. But sometimes when I'm especially ill and/or brainfogged, new info just never gets stored into memory. Often, when someone reminds me of something they've told me that I've forgotten, it will ring a bell and I recall that I have heard this before. But other times, it's as if it's completely new information to me.

Short term memory is worst, but sometimes I can't recall long-term memories, either. Somehow that's more disturbing, because it's as if I'm losing pieces of myself as I lose my history. I have to remind myself that it will probably come back when I'm feeling better.

I wouldn't set much stock in what doctors say about it might be dementia or it might be menopause, or whatever. Most doctors aren't familiar with the array of symptoms common in ME/CFS. They may read on the CDC website that there might be cognitive problems, but they don't really know what that means, so when confronted with it, they look for other causes. It doesn't occur to them that it could be from the ME/CFS. They think ME/CFS is just fatigue and maybe a little achiness.

 

[Calathea]

Silly, everyone knows that batteries live in the microwave, not the fridge!

It's crappy, but it is normal for ME. As well as the usual kitchen accidents, and having to keep notes for absolutely everything (there's quite a complex system on the computer as I can't use a pen any more), the worst one for me is completely forgetting to eat all day. My partner used to get home at 6 and ask if I'd eaten that day, and I'd say, "I don't know." Now I write down when and what I eat as well. It turned out I'd accidentally been overcompensating to the point where I had put on a third again of my original body weight.

In terms of minor annoyances, I am fed up with how often I can open a new Firefox tab and already have forgotten what I want to do with it, let alone getting up to go into another room but having no idea what I wanted when I get there, or sometimes by the time I have stood up. Then there's the fun of ringing someone and not knowing who to ask for by the time they pick up the phone.

I've got problems with short-term memory, medium-term and long-term. Medium term is mainly the stuff we're talking about here. Short-term, or so I've been told, is things like forgetting how to spell, and I'd suspect anything else that takes places over a few seconds such as not remembering who you just dialled on the phone. As for long-term memory, most of my life is missing, particularly my childhood. Some of it is due to the brain being bad at forming new memories when we're groggy - I'm never going to remember stuff that happened when I was fairly dopey - but I didn't get ME till I was 19 so that doesn't account for everything.

 

[alex3619]

Hi Calathea, there is one blessing here, for me. During the 90s I had several years when I was in daily severe pain with bouts of extreme pain, fog so bad I had trouble getting from one room to the next, and exhaustion so bad I had to not eat for three days to get the strength to go buy groceries - go, buy, come home before I collapse. While not technically bed bound (couch bound instead) I have only vague blurry memory of the entire time - several years missing. This is a blessing. Bye, Alex