My Personal Cognitive Problems - Anyone else?

[TaureDawn]

From another thread on this topic entitled "Cognitive Issues Lately": "I know exactly what I want to say, but something else comes out of my mouth that makes no sense at all." ME TOO! Strange we will never loose our intelligence or long term memory with MS but we have cognitive dysfunctioning.


Something that happens to me and would like to know if others with MS experience it or not because it may not be MS related.

(This is very hard to explain but I'll give it a try)
The "something that happens" to me: In the thinking part of my brain it will very often have stuff that enters my mind that is totally unrelated to what I am thinking about or what I am saying or what someone else is saying. And it's usually something from my past.

Here are some generic examples of what I'm talking about but has actually happened to me:

Example: [I could be doing something like] Discussing what are we going to cook tonight and then my brain will throw up a totally unrelated thought like "I still love the colour of burnt orange no matter how unpopular the colour is to others."

Example: I could be watching a storm outside and thinking about how much I love thunderstorms. Then the words "Chinese checkers" will pop into my thoughts.

When this happens to me I am like "???". "What is this weird unrelated thought in my head?"


Another strange thing that happens to me is that I hear curse words in my mind too. It's not like I'm cursing myself or someone else out. Instead, again, I'm in a conversation or thinking about something. It's like my mind throws out curse words just because it can.

Another thing that happens to me is going to the wrong room or opening up a wrong cabinet door.

Example: I've got coffee brewing and I go to get a coffee cup out of the cabinet but I will open up the wrong cabinet. The cabinet door I open never held coffee cups before and the right cabinet is directly diagonal from the [wrong] cabinet I keep opening to get a coffee cup. This happens every single day (and sometimes more than once).


Can anyone else relate to my experiences? Is it MS or something else?

[SunshineDaydreams]

You're ok - I make the coffee, but forget to put the water in; put the tea kettle on, burnt up the kettle and almost started a fire; made myself lunch twice one day - completely forgot the first.

My brain never stops anymore. It's really REALLY hard to concentrate on anything - and if I manage to concentrate on something, and someone sneezes - it's gone - I'm off on some other thought. I stopped trying to figure out anything too complex because it never failed, I come back to it a day or an hour later - and it's wrong. I do it again - wrong.

I have a lot of language problems - partly word finding, partly memory, partly lingual. Some days I can't talk at all - just weird noises come out. Most days I just forget what I was saying mid sentence - or have to keep stopping to figure out another word.

[lisa1014]

I can relate!

I forget everything. My poor kids will look at me like I am crazy. My husband gets frustrated because I tell him the same thing over and over but I really don't remember telling him.

I got the checks ready to enter into the computer at work. Sat at my desk with the computer and checks in front of me and I could not remember what I was sitting there for. One of my employees walked in and said oh your entering checks at that point I remembered what I was supposed to be doing.

Some days I think I am loosing it!!!

[4boysmom]

Yes, I think we all can have some kind of cognitive issues. My neuro always asks me if I still balance my checkbook. I laugh because I make these spreadsheets with big formulas with my work, so balancing the checkbook is really easy.

But, my husband has told me for years that I'm not listening to him, because he'll ask me something, and I'll reply, "What?" and by the time he repeats what he asked, I'll know what it was and answer him before he gets done asking the second time. I have diagnosed myself as having a "slow processing speed" since I deal with computers every day.

I hear everything that is said, but I just don't "get it" as quick as I used too, so it seems I am not listening.

I also get the word mix-up thing. I'll think I've said one thing, but something else pops out instead. Such as a choir director, I tell everyone to start on the fourth verse when there are only 3 verses to the song!

[swpanther1]

It is really 'good' to know one is not alone with these cog issues . . . . at times it sure brings one to tears, but then there are the times that it brings some good laughs.

[tired_teacher]

MG?

You've really gotten some great answers here, but I too was doing the same thing. Also, my left eye droops and has been since 2008. My neuro has tested me for Myasthenia Gravis. Have you thought about this? Dr. J asked me if I were in the middle of a sentence talking about one thing and ended up talking about another? I've not gotten my results back yet, but when I do, I'll to remember to post them.

[4boysmom]

Okay, I have to do a follow-up from reading this post earlier this week. The evening I read this post and posted, I ended up watching an episode of Criminal Minds (gross one) where a crazy guy was turning humans into puppets.

Anyway, we watched some Big Bang Theory episodes after, and before time to fall asleep, so the Criminal Minds episode was at least an hour or two in the past.

I started to doze off, and my DH came to bed. I said Goodnight, and then out of the blue, a thought came to my mind and I said, "Who was the actor in the movie 'A Man Called Horse? Richard Harris?" which he agreed was the right answer, but since I have only seen that movie once in my life, like 30 years ago, it was a bizarre thought seemingly out of nowhere!

Of course my DH and I speculated it was the Criminal Minds episode, and what the humans were dangling like as puppets was eerily similar to the movie, and that was the connection.

But really? A movie I only saw once, and while I was in high school? And I couldn't remember Richard Harris's name at first, but Camelot came to mind, and that gave me the answer. (Which I've only seen that movie once!)

So I think weird things come to mind because of neural connections made when younger. I could go into some of the brain research I've read lately for my work as an educator, but I won't bore anyone with those details .

[Westgrl]

This kind of reminds me of a test I was given by a psychiatrist when I was younger. He asked me several math problems that all added up the the number 6 & then asked me to think of the first vegetable that came to mind. I said carrot, even though i never ate them, and he said that 98% would say carrot.

The reason being, and I only vaguely remember the specifics, was that the number 6 and (again bad memory) it was either vegetable carrot or color orange are sort of next to each other in your brain.

This may explain why you randomly think of odd things. With lesions in the brain, nerves may be wired a little off or trying to rewire & the path may suddenly cause you to think of something being "stored" nearby.

I just realized I made our brains sound like a computer lol Again, I have no idea if that is the case but it reminded me of that little test/quiz I was given so many years ago.

[22cyclist]

I forget everything! I do all the cleaning at home as hubby does the cooking (I would forget I was cooking which was an issue.) So, I am forever putting things away where they do not go apparently, but since I don't remember where they go, it seems fine to me but drives my DH crazy! I also cannot spell, thank goodness for spell check! Some days it is literally every word! I have word-finding difficulties, some naming difficulties, and problems speaking due to a pontine lesion.

My iPhone saves my life most days keeping my appointments straight. I would never get anywhere, or I would be a day or an hour late. I do not do my own finances anymore as I can't do simple math anymore. Sure am glad I spent all that money in nursing school and grad school taking calculus and trigonometry-all for nothing now.

Anyway, I look at it as a challenge, what else can you do?

Best of luck to all of us!
Lisa

[Thinkimjob]

Before I leave a room, I make a mental list of where I am going, what I intend to do when I get there, and make sure I take everything I think I'll need from the room.

I do not have the energy to be making unnecessary return journeys. Of course, best laid plans go oft astray.

Let's take doing the laundry.
I remember to take every except say, the laundry powder, which I didn't remember to get out of the car, which means a search the for the car keys, which should be on the kitchen table, but turn up in the bathroom, eventually.

I don't even have the energy to get organised.


Happy New Year, though I hear, my American friends, you've just fallen off a fiscal cliff. Not entirely sure what that means. Good luck, anyway. No doubt it sounds worse than it is.

[poohb3ar]

cog fog? what's that?

my fog floats in and out, never totally clearing and always embarrassing. most of my friends 'get it' and i don't have to back pedal and explain. that is, if i even realized i've made a mistake!
i swap words, beg. of words ie 'go there' comes out 'tho gere' ! loads of fun!
at a cafe i thought i was ordering chai tea, server gave me a VERY strange look. luckily my DD was with me and said she meant 'chai tea'. to this day she won't tell me what i said!
i embarrass easy and my 'cuss' word is crap. so i guess i don't want to know what i said

in crowds, i try to stay quiet. but that has never been in my nature. so too often i embarrass myself & DH. which makes me not want to go out with a large group of friends.
not good. i don't want to stay down that path. relapses and surgeries keep me away enough.

i've started reading and looking up words i don't know more. plus doing word games, esp scrabble.
wheel of fortune and other word games can help too. but i must admit i play scrabble alone, because i find too many of my words are 'made up'.

hang in there! you're not alone.

take care and God bless ya!

[Cira]

I'm starting to have issues with finding words. Several weeks ago, I couldn't think if the word 'observant'. I kept coming up with related words....observational, observatory, etc....but not the one I wanted. I ended up saying something else that didn't make sense. It really bothered me that I couldn't think of it, but I gave up after a couple of weeks of trying to figure it out. ...And then, one day I used it as casually as if I hadn't just spent weeks trying to remember it. Later, I went to tell my best friend about it only to realize that I had "lost" the word again. Talk about frustrating.

I also spent about 15 minutes on the phone the other day....During that one conversation, I looked for my phone 2 separate times, thinking I lost it, before I realized I was using it.

[lisams]

typing strange words

my cognitive problems aside from forgetting words and where i left things is i will be typing and when i go back to check my typing (have to do that) i will often find strange words of mixed letters that make no sense at all.