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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Reggie BoStar on December 11, 2011, at 16:43:21
Hey all,
About 6 months ago I noticed that I was having problems with "word finding", i.e. when I wanted to say something, I couldn't remember the correct or appropriate word.I reported this to my therapist, psychiatrist, and neurologist. They pretty much all agreed that it was a side-effect of major depression, stress, plus possibly my meds.
It kept getting worse, at least from my viewpoint. I was having more and more trouble in phone conversations with even simple words.
Then I noticed something else. For entertainment I like to watch DVDs of old TV series. I could watch 4-5 episodes of a single series at night. About a month ago I started having problems remembering details in episodes I had watched the night before. More and more often I had to replay the older episodes to remind myself of what had happened. As I watched each episode, I thought I was paying attention and understanding everything; but a day later, the details, sometimes entire episodes, would be gone.
Last week when I reported this to my neurologist, she gave me some simple memory tests. She would say 3 words, then ask me to do a series of math problems that had nothing to do with those words. Then she would ask me to repeat the words.
It was very unsettling, because most of the time I could only remember the last of the 3 words she spoke. The best I could do with the other two words was guess the beginning letters.
This happened even if I associated the words with objects in the room, to try to memorize them by reference (an old trick). When she would ask to repeat the words, I sometimes wouldn't remember which objects I had used for references. Even when I did remember the objects, I couldn't remember the words I had associated with them.
The last word was the best I could do, most of the time that is.
I started watching a DVD series again tonight, and sure enough, I had to backtrack a few episodes to remember what had happened. It's a strange sensation. When I watch those older episodes, I somehow know that I've seen them before, but it's as if I'm seeing the details for the first time. Yet I'm convinced that I must have noticed those details the first time around, because I couldn't have made sense out of those episodes without recognizing the details.
One I started paying attention to those problems, I realized that my recall of daily events was shot. After a week of appointments and other activities, I couldn't remember that I had kept the appointments, or on what day of the week/date they were held.
On my PC, I'm now continuously running across things I've written in the recent past that I have no memory of writing. It's on the internet too. I've been going to various tech support forums for advice on recording DVDs and other A/V hobbies. More than once I've found a lengthy, well-worded description of the solution - written by me, as recently as the previous week. Once was bad enough, but now it's happened 3 or 4 times in this week.
So there it is. Growing recall problems - first word finding, then those TV episodes, then the lost writings on internet forums, then that word test in my neurologist's office.
My neurologist wants to wait a month to see if it's still happening. If it is, she'll set up appointments for formal memory testing.
I'm uncomfortable waiting that long and I told her that. She said something about knowing my history, and that a month's wait to be certain something was happening would be the way to go. In other words, she's still not ruling out psychological/medication issues.
I've had more than that month. The word finding issue started happening months ago; the TV episode thing started just last month. I have no idea when the lost internet posts started, and I couldn't know when the word test memory issues started because of course I never ran those tests on myself.
I reminded her of that, but she stuck to the agenda and told me not to worry.
Another month? I don't like it. For other reasons, I can't see my therapist or psychiatrist until next month either. So I'm kind of "hung out to dry" (I remembered the phrase!!!) with a real memory problem and a huge amount of concern over it.
Alzheimer's runs in the family, on my father's side (his paternal grandfather, mother, maternal uncle). I went to the various Alzheimer's websites to see what was up. The only thing I could find about the very early stages was "increasing memory loss" and "report to your doctor for testing". The nature of that memory loss wasn't explained in enough detail to do me any good.
At least I didn't forget what I wanted to ask here: is anyone else experiencing problems like this solely because of psychological and/or med issues? If something else was the cause, what was it? And what are some of the very early signs of Alzheimer's, other than a vague description like "increasing memory loss"?
Thanks for your attention to this long, antsy post,
Reggie BoStar
Posted by Dinah on December 29, 2011, at 22:23:35
In reply to memory loss worseing, failed test by neurologist, posted by Reggie BoStar on December 11, 2011, at 16:43:21
I don't recall any specifics but I think I did see something about there being a blood test or scan test or something for early Alzheimers.
The sort of things you describe happen to me often. I failed the word memory test years ago. I not only have word recall problems, but I also have word substitution problems. It gets so bad when I'm tired that my family responds to it by asking me how much sleep I'm getting.
Anxiety and tiredness both make it worse. Meds can also make it worse.
A month isn't all that long to a doctor. If you aren't bleeding or exhibiting signs of something urgent, they just don't have the same sense of urgency that we have about our own health. I tend to be more upset when they think there's something I need to do right away than when they ask me to wait.
I hope it goes well for you.
This is the end of the thread.
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