I feel like my brain doesn't work right anymore!??

[Robbie67]

I know how you feel. I'm a waitress and the other i sat the customer and drank him, walked away forgot i was suppose to wait on him (theres me and another waitress we share section). I walk back n forth and wondering why he still have his menu on table. "He replies You are my waitress" feel stupid embrassed. I've done this job for 30 years and never did that. Ive been upset since. I made it up and still got tip but wow.... Newly diagnosed. Im sorry for your cogntive issues i feel like you.

[Alphasig1514]

i have the 'cog fog' as several of you have called it. some days are ok and i can carry on like normal.
but other days i forget the simplest of things and have trouble putting sentences together.
the bad thing is i never know what the day is going to be like!

i was just diagnosed in april of this year and about 6 months prior to that i noticed my memory was 'acting stupid'. i just turned 36 in may so i didnt think i could be getting 'old'
i live with my mom (she has health issues that i help her out with) and she even noticed that i was forgetting to do things (stop at the store, put letters in the mailbox, etc)
we both chalked it up to stress of my job - im a manager at a call center and the daily stress can get to you. plus i wasnt sleeping well. i was also having MASSIVE mood swings.
but once i went to the specialist it all made sense to me.

i still feel like an idiot at times and have to basically put my sentence together in my head before speaking.
but even then it doesnt always work.
i used to be very quick with comebacks and snarky remarks but now it doesnt work very well.
my coworkers laugh it off now and we all chalk it up to the stress we're all under. (i havent told anyone i work with about my diagnosis)
while it sucks to have to deal with this i am glad that there are others who are having the same problem

[newbie but goodie]

I don't know if this is true for others but I can share that my cog fog gets exponentially worse when I am hot. It's July in MD now so I am struggling!

[dyin_myelin]

Hi Alpha I hear you and deeply empathize. I tested to get my current job and placed first out of 500 people. I know they now think I'm lazy or uninterested and show no mercy pointing out that I'm bad with names and forget to do things. We're the same age. I was never much to look at and my personality is sarcastic and introverted, but my redeeming quality was how well and effortlessly I did my job. It's so senseless and cruel what's happening.

I'm just trying to take comfort in the fact that long term memory is intact. Much of short term stuff is banal: shopping lists, gossip, trivial thoughts. I started to keep a journal where I write down sx I notice, a redeeming thing that happened, and a notation of what was going on in the skyscape (amber yellow ring around moon) since I always enjoyed cloud watching and astronomy. It's like my own version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, since the good thing jogs my memory but I can't remember anything else about the day. If it ever gets to the point where I'm holding the journal and drooling on it in a permanent fog that is where I'm getting off.

[WebDev]

MS Symptoms?

Hi. I'm 51 yo, I have not been diagnosed as having MS, but sometimes I drop things, and my coordination is not what it used to be. I'm in grad school, and my brain has a hard time understanding programming, although I experienced that even several years ago. The dept. I'm in at school is administratively dysfunctional (IMO), which has been stressful, and my graduation date is up in the air because of it. I walked out of a meeting with the Director of the Dept. this week, because I was upset when she was surprised to hear me say that I'm graduating in May, and that one of the classes I'm taking now will not count toward my degree. I had cleared this all up with the Associate Chair of the Dept. in Aug., so I thought.

I feel more unorganized than ever. I was going through the turnstile to go to the train, after some of my classmates went through, and I was digging through my backpack while in the turnstile, because I had several train passes, and some of them had enough money on them, and some of them didn't. My classmates were waiting for me, and finally when I got through, one of them asked me if I was having a hard time, and I explained why. :| :")

Earlier, I was talking to the same classmate, and he must think I'm an idiot. I asked him when he's graduating, and he said "next May," so I wanted to clarify, and I asked, "May of 2013?" He kept saying, "No, May 2014." Then I said, "So you have over a year to go." Anyway, it finally dawned on me that May of 2013 already passed!!!

I might add that I have been staying up late to study, and I feel I have no sense of time or scheduling, because my homework takes so long to figure out, and I haven't been able to get the help I need. I hope that's what it is, and that I don't have MS.

[hope32]

The last few years, I've felt like I've had more trouble putting my thoughts into words or searching for the right word, or I will be typing and put in a word that sounds like the one I want but is completely off.

I'm not sure though, honestly, if it's MS cog fog or "mommy brain." I went straight from being a full-time graduate student to a SAHM to twins so that may have something to do with it!

[EternityOutweighsThis]

I can relate, too! A couple weeks ago, someone convinced me to start a symptom log, and while writing it I discovered that there are times when I forget how to spell a word I was going to write, and other times I know in my mind, but it still comes out wrong on paper. (I don't know if I have MS or what, but I definitely have something!)

[krystine]

can definitely relate

I can totally relate to what everyone is saying. I have been dxd for 14 years and have been a grade nine teacher and assistant principal until this past March. My identity has always been an intelligent good speaker and when I was still teaching, I started to forget words and mix up sentences especially if i was tired or in a flare. My students would look at me sometimes with confusion until I said "That didnt make any sense did it?" They nervously laughed and said no. I explained to them what was going on with me and they eventually learned to "translate" what I was saying! Kind of funny to watch.

Now that I am not working anymore, it has become a lot less as I am not stressed out and overworked anymore. I still forget simple words sometimes and forget things like my husband's uncle's name at Christmas when i went to introduce him (we are really close to him), but people learn to understand the more you communicate with them what is happening. I make a joke of it most of the time now.

It is totally frustrating though I know and it is gets much worse for me when i am overtired. Just know that you have lots of people here who understand and know what it is like.

[Cami]

wow

Until this moment I didnt realize that mi0xing up, or forgetting words or peoples names was part of this....was told this was becuz of my fibromyalgia...dam this has been going on for years.

[Strhuntrss]

CJohnstone and others,

I can totally relate

I have recently learned that my husband helps me finish all of my sentences and or says "honey ... didn't you mean to say ___". He is a Godsend

I knew he helped me before and it took him some time to accept that it is the disease and not me, who is getting the blank stares, lol.

Just this past New Years Day afternoon, we were driving to our friends house who were having a few couples over (hubby belongs to an aviation club that consists of 6 guys).

Only one couple knows of my plight, so the others would think I was crazy and not paying attention.

My husband put his hand on my arm while we were driving and said .. "honey, try and think before you speak. And don't give me that look when I try and correct you tonight".

He made me laugh and then I started to cry. Just reminding me that the brain doesn't want to work right still upsets me. But it is lessening with time.

So ... if you have a loved one who can help you, GREAT, let them!

It helps when you have them give you eye signals or like what my hubby does, he scratches the side of his head and that lets me know I am not processing right at that moment in conversation and I let him finish for me.

He is great at this and I so love him for it!

When I am by myself ... well, that is another story. I use the old "I must be getting old" routine. Works most of the time

I think the hardest part is not having the patience with myself.

To breathe and start all over again. It is a challenge to say the least.

BUT ... Here at MSWorld, we are here for each other!
So, let us laugh and cry together for we all understand all too well

God Bless

[Ri88]

Sometimes I avoid conversations because I tend to tangle up my words or get mixed up sometimes trying to follow conversations.

[amholl8962]

I can understand this nightmare!

I know how you feel. I'm a waitress and the other i sat the customer and drank him, walked away forgot i was suppose to wait on him (theres me and another waitress we share section). I walk back n forth and wondering why he still have his menu on table. "He replies You are my waitress" feel stupid embrassed. I've done this job for 30 years and never did that. Ive been upset since. I made it up and still got tip but wow.... Newly diagnosed. Im sorry for your cogntive issues i feel like you.

Yep, I have been here too. I had been a server for 16 years, and always was the go-to employee. I could remember 4 different tables complete order at one time and deliver it all just right. Currently, you could tell me your drink choice and if I didn't write it down I may not even remember to bring any drink at all. The last year of my serving when I would run into these issues, I would introduce myself as, Amanda, your clumsy, absent-minded waitress who will win you over with charm. But I hated it! It was completely embarrassing.

I finally had to just quit serving as I seem to have lost the ability to converse in a normal manner. It is a toss up between not being able to find the right word and those times when it is your turn to speak and having nothing (at all) to say and then we all just sit there awkwardly until I can think of some type of response. The longer those awkward moments lasted, the more difficult it became to think of something, anything to say. Yeah, it was time for me to set down the waitress tablet.

[madbeach23]

COG FOG

There are many times that I feel stupid. Actually I have tried to come to terms that I am just stupid. I am so afraid of making decisions because I panic that I am not making the right one. I don't trust myself. I also totally relate with staring at people like a deer caught in the headlights trying to figure out what they are saying to me. Trying to come up with words is another. I will be speaking to someone and for the life of me I know I don't make sense. I will be a loss for words quite often. It is frustrating because I use to be so confident and now I often just want to crawl under a rock. I know when we are in a crowd I almost have a panic attack trying to figure out how to maneuver the crowd. My husband doesn't get it and I fear that he will start getting annoyed with me.

[hikick1]

Brain delay

Hold your head up high, you are not nearly alone. As a former health professionals, it makes me very upset not to be able to communicate with other professionals in a "timely" manner. They even forget I have medical knowledge and say things to me as though I am uneducated in general. I truly believe difficulties in communication effects more of our various emotions than any other symptom. Anger, frustration, envy, depression, .......