lymebytes
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11830
posted
I am curious to know what others experience during brain fog and if it an ongoing symptom for most or does it cycle for you.
Brain fog for me is a "package" of symptoms and comes in cycles and is really scary, I am "not there", can't think clearly of course, can't remember phone numbers and things like that. I get anxiety, shaky, tremory, usually w/flushed hot skin, yet no fever and leg weakness all accompany it.
What do you experience, does this sound at all familiar?
posted
I feel like I'm not actually SEEING anything...like my eyes are seeing everything around me, but my brain isn't processing it all. I have no depth perception or real perception of things around me, so I can't drive a car (because I can't park it or tell where the cars are around me on the freeway, and I react to slowly to what's around me) and I bump into door frames and whatnot. I'm only half there, and I'm only percieving half of what's there.
Posts: 710 | From West Coast | Registered: May 2008
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posted
i call mine the black hole.....its like thoughts, words, spelling all dissappear, slow response to conversation......
-------------------- Oct 09 Positive CDC Western Blot Jan 10 Positive Babesia Duncani Jan 10 Cd57 28 Mar 10 EBV, IgM, IgG HHV-6 IgG Posts: 739 | From NC | Registered: Oct 2009
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BackinStOlaf
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 23725
posted
I go to a room to do something and forget what I went for 10 seconds later. I can't think of words I want to say when I speak. I forget what I was going to say halfway into a sentence. I forget things easily.
-------------------- First Symptom 9/09 Multiple docs, negative Labcorp test LLMD: 1/10 Positive Igenex/CDC test Treatment 2/10 2/10-8/10 Amox, ceftin, zith, flagyl Currently: Bicillin, Minocycline, still dealing with severe breathing issues
Posts: 1121 | From New York, New York | Registered: Dec 2009
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map1131
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2022
posted
I call it being in the tunnel. I see the world, but it's as if I'm in an actual tunnel looking through to the outside.
My thinking is slower and I'm not able to comprehend things as quickly.
Pam
-------------------- "Never, never, never, never, never give up" Winston Churchill Posts: 6478 | From Louisville, Ky | Registered: Jan 2002
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feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
Lymebytes,
My brain fog manifests as a 'total' blank in my brain....It is usually accompanied by shakiness, anxiety and either hot or cold feelings.
I slurr my words, or my words feel very heavy and slow coming out of my mouth.
I also have what LittleLymie describes...depth perception problems, spacey feelings, bumping into things...and gave up driving over 2 years ago because of this....
At that time I was in a parking lot at a gas station and totally 'lost' couldn't figure out how to open my purse, pump gas, or walk into the building...very scary!
feelfit
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
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posted
feelfit just reminded me of something else....I have been driving 17 yrs with not one bump, ticket or anything until 2 weeks ago when i slightly bumped a car in front of me just couldnt judge the distance,
then i was at a drive thru with my daughter and as the lady was giving me the icecream, i went to pay her and took my foot off the break instead of moving my arm...
i started to roll forward and couldnt think quick enough to put my foot back down,
I had to reverse to pay her....there was just no coordination between brain, arm, foot.....very weird.....
-------------------- Oct 09 Positive CDC Western Blot Jan 10 Positive Babesia Duncani Jan 10 Cd57 28 Mar 10 EBV, IgM, IgG HHV-6 IgG Posts: 739 | From NC | Registered: Oct 2009
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Haley
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 22008
posted
I feel as if I am floating and I am unable to do simple tasks and have normal conversations.
It's as if I drank a quart of vodka and took a handful of Ambien. I feel this way all the time.
Brain fog is a lousy term to describe it. Brain fog is what you feel when you are someone that doesn't have Lyme that just woke up and feels a bit groggy. IMO
It's quite a humbling experience.
Posts: 2232 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2009
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lyme in Putnam
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11561
posted
anyone else's concept of time off?
-------------------- He took u to it, He'll you through Posts: 2837 | From NE. | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
Mine is similar to aspects of LittleLymies and Feelfit's. I can 'see' but cannot process what is in front of me. Very hard to describe, but LL said it well. I am weakest/shakiest then, usually. Dizziness or disequilibrium is part of it too.
I don't feel all the way conscious, there's often an odd physical feeling in the front of my head....it's like taking a very, very bad drug. If I'm interacting with people, it's like I'm experiencing consciousness from the bottom of a well or something.
It's a living hell when it's there. I think it's why I feel 'passing out' feelings, it feels like a pre-syncope feeling. And lasts and lasts, for hours.
I'm actually glad to read this thread, because I wonder myself. It's very disturbing (and tends to get a bit better at night).
But I agree..."brain fog" is too benign a term for what I (and others) experience. I would wonder, "is THIS brain fog? 'cause this seems more severe than that term puts across.....
Posts: 322 | From Venice, CA | Registered: Sep 2008
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lymebytes
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11830
posted
Feelfit, I think we have the same strain! Really, when one of us gets well, the other must use the same protocol, lol. You reminded me slurring of words - yes that is me too and I feel like I am not making sense when I talk. I also feel off balance.
When my son was sick he described his as "reality snaps" snapping in and out of reality, sometimes he'd be "out" for days or longer.
posted
mine is 24/7 and has been for 5 years, it feels like I am detached from reality and not present. It's by far my most frustrating symptom, I don't feel alive. When I look at myself in the mirror it doesn't even feel like I am looking at myself, this is very creepy, my memory is terrible I cant focus. I'd do anything to alleviate this symptom some.
Many of you say it comes and goes, worries me that mine is constant, and always has been.
Posts: 59 | From Arizona | Registered: May 2008
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map1131
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2022
posted
Trevor, my brain fog lasted for 6 yrs daily until it started waxing and waning. That went on for a few years.
Then came longer periods of being clear headed. But it doesn't take much to put me back in the tunnel. Stress or doing more in life and I'm fogged again.
Difference today and the great part....it can be cleared.
Pam
-------------------- "Never, never, never, never, never give up" Winston Churchill Posts: 6478 | From Louisville, Ky | Registered: Jan 2002
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lyme in Putnam
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11561
posted
I know the feeling of not feeling alive, it lifted last night and back full force this am. I've had this for many years, but when I was
symptom free, it lasted for a year and a half, and it was the best year and a half in my life.
Not glorified, just my life, and hopefully I'll get it back (and you and whoever is cursed with
this.) I guess we have no choice but to wait it out, but its hard pretending to be you when you
feel so out of yourself. Doing things almost mechanically. Feel good.
-------------------- He took u to it, He'll you through Posts: 2837 | From NE. | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
I am sorry all of you suffer this. I have had it constantly for 2 years now. It started as me going in and out of it. I think - maybe - that it is finally getting better after 1 1/2 years of treatment. I just started levaquin. I am really hoping that it will help.
It makes me feel less alone knowing others are out there fighting this too. We all just have to have faith. I will probably be singing a different song when I up my dose of levaquin to 500mg tomorrow.
Hugs all. Kathy
-------------------- Severe neurological problems. Probably sick for years. Became chronically sick in Aug 2007. Undiagnosed for another 15 months. Started treatment for lyme and bart Sept. 2008. Improving, but very slowly. Posts: 515 | From washington dc | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Mine is transient-some days are bad-like real bad-others I feel okish.
For me it is horrid memory, overall hungover feeling, and at its worst tons of derealization/depersonalization which is the worst of all of it for me because I feel like a robot in a fake world and it really creeps me out.
Posts: 594 | From NJ/NY | Registered: Jun 2006
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nefferdun
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 20157
posted
I feel numb and disconnected from life, other people and myself. I have no motivation to do anything and have to go through the motions.
My memory is gone. I have actually not recognized people I know, thinking to myself that they look like who they are but not registering that it is them! I can be walking along telling myself something over and over to remember to do something and then five hours later it hits me I never did it.
I cannot concentrate or learn. I feel stupid.
I think a better word would be "dementia" as that is what this really is. But it is like a fog too as everything disappears and seems out of focus and unreal.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
the unreal feeling according to my LLMD and my GP is Derealization/Depersonalization and its apparently very common with Lyme but also adrenal disorders and other hormonal disorders.
I still have it big time, but it has gotten a bit better since I started caring for my adrenals.
Posts: 594 | From NJ/NY | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
My field of awareness gets small. Like normally I would be very clear about where I am in my day, what's to be done, what I already did, where I am in my week.
When the brain fog rolls in, my awareness is in a much smaller timeframe. I am aware of what I'm doing now, but everything else sort of recedes. At worst, if I don't get my thoughts on paper, they're gone. I liken it to driving a car in dense fog - how close is the fog to the car, how far can I see. How big is the field of my awareness. If its really bad, I'm like, what did I eat today? Did I eat today? I'll write an email and then 2 hours later I'm surprised by the response. When I see the email and am reminded, I remember, but before that, it sort of doesn't exist. If I'm not so foggy, maybe I'm aware of today's actions, but I'm unaware of tomorrow and I forget to pack or prepare for what's coming next.
Also there can be very little thought traffic - I'm stuck on the car analogy I guess. Like a single car going down a country road, versus how my normal would be, lots of thoughts occurring to me - a busy freeway with lots of traffic, on and off ramps...
Slowness to speak, inability to think globally or summarize. Can think in small details but not the big picture. I can do things that require small steps for hours - like doing sudoku or playing a really simple and repetitive computer game. HOURS.
I could go on! I'll stop there.
I will say, about six months ago at a certain phase of treatment, I had a short period where my mind was SPARKLING clear and I really had forgotten that that was what normal was like. It was amazing and wonderful. The person I was is still there, just need to dig her out from under all this rubble.
Forgot to add - it cycles - can change in the course of a day even.
Posts: 227 | From South of the North Pole | Registered: Jan 2007
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5dana8
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7935
posted
numb, empty blank mind, being spaced out and not being able to concentrate or focus. Florence1 said it perfectly " a black hole"
-------------------- 5dana8 Posts: 4432 | From some where over the rainbow | Registered: Sep 2005
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