Update: I saw a doc at the memory clinic this morning. And did far too well in the tests so they are putting my issues down to depression, because I started anti-depressants recently and have Crohn's. They don't want to see me again.
The tests were ridiculous, like day of week, month, season, write a sentence, remember these 3 words. Obviously aimed at advanced Alzheimers folk than a useful indicator for the likes of us.
Disappointed.
Beth, I have done tests similar to yours and felt the same way about them. The Neuropsychometric testing feels overly simplistic and doesn't really show how your brain functions in the real world in real circumstances. Take for instance the face test. One of my worst problems is that I cannot remember people's names when they come up and talk to me and sometimes get them mixed up as to where I knew them and sometimes I don't recognize people at all when they are out of context. The face test only tests your ability to recognize faces you have seen before. It does not require you to place them in your memory OR to recall names or facts about the person with the face. It did not show what happens when I am confronted with a face and cannot remember when, how or if I actually know that person.
Brain Fog is associated with several different long term uncurable conditions including: Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Diabetes and others. I personally have Crohn's, Diabetes, Chronic sinusitis, Fibromyalgia and have had numerous doctors tell me I have MS, though they have never been able to find it on an MRI (thank goodness!). The MS "symptoms" are hopefully caused by the Fibromyalgia and won't ever become full blown MS.
Anyway - that being said, I am NOT a good person for your poll because I do have conditions that are known to cause Brain Fog. I do have a theory about it, and would like to share it with you.
First of all, chronic conditions affect your entire body - not just the "area" where the problem is. Crohn's chemicals and signals are traveling through your blood telling your body that it is sick and being attacked. This blood flows through every organ of your body, including the brain. The brain has a fantastic strainer that catches most chemicals, including medicines, before it gets in. However, it is not perfect and can be breached by medications and other chemicals. Your brain is being bombarded by the chemicals that your disease process puts off.
Second, one of the things your brain does when you are ill is to make you feel tired so that you will slow down and heal. But, if the process has gone haywire - like with Crohn's - then it is likely (in my theory) that your brain reaction is going to be slightly haywire and you will feel tired and "out of it" due to the faulty disease process. Your brain is reacting to an illness that has gone out of control. The brains reaction, therefore, may be flawed due to the poor information it is getting from the body.
So, you have a body that is fighting an illness (in our case, our own body) and sending distress signals to your brain. Your brain is reacting and making you slow down to heal. But, our illness is so messed up that our brain is getting signals even when we are not that ill. So, we feel tired and out of it even when we shouldn't OR we may be having inflammation that isn't causing other symptoms.
That is my theory. I, too, suffer from much poorer thinking skills than I used to. There are days I cannot type more than a couple of words at a time without making typos and I used to type quickly and accurately. I can't even find all the words I want to use for this post!! I had to use words that I could think of rather than the ones I really wanted to use.
It is a crazy side effect of illness.
hugs to all
