Yesterday I had my first Neuro-Psych evaluation to establish a baseline for my cognitive abilities. The Neurologist felt this was important because I have had decline in my memory. Truth is; a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the state capital for a meeting for work and I have been there many many times but somehow I "forgot" where I was going and why and when I did remember I couldn't remember how to get there. I took out the GPS and when the GPS told me to turn right, I began to panic because i couldn't remember right from left. I freaked out. It all came back fairly quickly but that left me reeling. I called the doctor and went in and sat in his office in tears. I don't cry, its very uncommon for me to get that rattled.
So the doctor decided to set up this appointment to establish a baseline so we can track the changes and possibly begin some work to "retrain" the brain...fine tune some things.
The test focused on memory and took 3 hours. I became increasingly frustrated because I scored so poorly on several of the test. I couldn't remember simple shapes after staring at them for 10 seconds and then trying to put the same shapes in the same places on a grid without looking. The doctor said he would need to grade the test before he could determine the extent of the issues but he did say it is apparent that the area of the brain that deals with "spatial relationships" is affected; that much was significantly apparent just during the course of the test.
I have to go back for additional testing for another couple of hours and then he said they may want to do an EEG to help them determine the areas of the brain that are most affected, and then determine a course of therapies that may help retrain the brain to work efficiently even with the deficiencies.
Interesting eh? I just thought I would share that for all of the people suffering with cognitive issues. You might ask your Neuro for a referral to a Neuro-psychologist for further evaluation. The Neuro-psychologist will look at the brain from a different perspective than the Neurologist and uses certain exercises and other therapies to help improve cognition instead of drugs.
So the doctor decided to set up this appointment to establish a baseline so we can track the changes and possibly begin some work to "retrain" the brain...fine tune some things.
The test focused on memory and took 3 hours. I became increasingly frustrated because I scored so poorly on several of the test. I couldn't remember simple shapes after staring at them for 10 seconds and then trying to put the same shapes in the same places on a grid without looking. The doctor said he would need to grade the test before he could determine the extent of the issues but he did say it is apparent that the area of the brain that deals with "spatial relationships" is affected; that much was significantly apparent just during the course of the test.
I have to go back for additional testing for another couple of hours and then he said they may want to do an EEG to help them determine the areas of the brain that are most affected, and then determine a course of therapies that may help retrain the brain to work efficiently even with the deficiencies.
Interesting eh? I just thought I would share that for all of the people suffering with cognitive issues. You might ask your Neuro for a referral to a Neuro-psychologist for further evaluation. The Neuro-psychologist will look at the brain from a different perspective than the Neurologist and uses certain exercises and other therapies to help improve cognition instead of drugs.
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