posted
I spent 15-20 minutes driving around town yesterday because I could not remember which street the grocery store was on. I drove down 1 road to the point I was sure it wasn't any further down that road andthen pulled into a parking lot to turn around. Didn't realize until I pulled in that it was a parking lot to a funeral home. How creapy!
The next road, I turned around in was a surgical center, followed by a gym. I did eventually find the grocery store. Hopefully nobody I know was following me wondering what the heck I was doing.
I have a few days where I feel good and then something like this happens. I hate Lyme Disease!
Posts: 60 | From NJ | Registered: Jun 2010
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posted
Sorry to hear - this is why we need to allow for some extra time -
I suppose this scenario happens to folks too: yesterday I went looking and looking for a store, going up and down the street - at least I had the street right -
thinking it must be due to having Lyme brain that I couldn't find it, only to finally realize the store really wasn't there anymore!
It was my favorite little gelato treat place. No more 40,000 oddball flavors - you name it, they'd try making it -
Posts: 13171 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- That's fairly common for lyme. It will get better with treatment but you may want to avoid driving for a while, or only when you feel your best. Also, if at any time, you tire while driving, put off to a side street and rest a bit.
I once found myself in Michigan - by mistake. I was driving from Chicago to Boston - no need to go to Michigan but the freeway connections were tricky.
Similarly to your experience, I once got lost in a (what do you call where people are buried?) - it was a memorial park of some sort but I have no idea where I made the wrong turn and went around in twists and turns for an hour before I could find my way to the street - and then still lost. Even with a map. Windy roads are like carnival rides with the disorientation factor.
Also common is forgetting where one parked the car - and then upon finding it, having no recollection of how it got there. That happened to me several times. The last time the cops kindly told me that I needed medical attention. But no doctor in my city would help.
At times, I also forgot how do drive - how to literally stop my car or shift gears. I forgot what red or green meant for traffic lights. I knew you had to do something when it changed but could not remember what for which color. Without treatment, I had to give up driving.
So, be sure to talk to your LLMD about all this so that you can just have that be one blip on the screen. But, if tired at all, pull over and rest or call someone to come drive you home.
Be careful with whom you share such information. A LLMD will understand but few others will. It's not at all what most think. It's a situation thing - and the way this affects lyme patients is just very different than how what may seem like the same experiences (but are not, exactly) affect others.
Share all this with your LLMD. And remember, it gets better with treatment.
. . . Attempts to indulge avocational or vocational pursuits is frequently interdicted by either the languor of Lyme or by encephalopathy. . . .
. . . impairment of concentration, inattention, easy confusion or disorientation when attempting intellectual tasks. . . .
. . . Lyme patients can be easily irritated by anyone just walking into the same room even though eye contact is never made or words exchanged. . . .
. . . Incidentally, hyperaccusis (sound sensitivity) can be a feature of VII neuritis. . . .
. . . Eye related problems in LD are commonplace . . . .
. . . disorganization, an inability to follow a train of thought . . . .
. . . Others forgot how to spell even simple words, how to read or must re-read with varying degrees of comprehension. One patient drove to Philadelphia instead of the desired Princeton destination because the initial letters were identical and confused him.
After shopping for groceries, another patient placed her shoes in the refrigerator and stored the food in the clothes closet.
Lyme patients can lose their way home or on the way to work, bypassing otherwise familiar exits or plain forgetting where they are in time and space or how they got there. This is known as topographical disorientation or environmental agnosia. . . . -
[ 07-27-2010, 07:01 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Oh, now while MapQuest and such are great helpers, they are not always correct. Call the place where you are going to confirm what a computer map has told you.
Do take advantage of the street views on map websites so you can visualize in advance when you go to a new place.
Also - get all the scented products out of your car. Those can make you stupid. Try to keep a clean light colored towel over your dash board and steering wheel when it's parked. It should be cotton, though so it does not trap in the petroleum out gas stuff when the plastic gets hot. It can help keep those petro gases of of the windshield. With a light cotton towel, it also won't get so hot and won't off-gas as much, then.
When you get to your car, open several doors and let it air out for a minute before getting in.
And - keep your distance from other vehicles as their exhaust can also make anyone stupid and sleepy. Even if vents are closed, that exhaust still gets into your car.
Avoid new cars if you can due to the chemical off-gas issue. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11141
posted
I don't miss that ..... my husband wouldn't let me leave the house alone because I would all of a sudden get disoriented. Even if I had my youngest with me, at least she could help me find things if I got lost.
I even would forget what to do once I was in the store and end up calling my husband in a panic. He'd have to give me simple instructions ... ie, pay for what's in the cart, go to your car and drive home, then call me when you get there.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
all I have read is scary. Hopefully I will find a doctor and get help before this happens.
Posts: 2 | From Oklahoma | Registered: Jul 2010
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posted
Yes, it's scary if you think about every possible thing that can happen. So is life in general.
Keebler has provided us with a comprehensive list of the "what-could-happens".
Take it and use it to be responsible, not paranoid. Know your limits.
Not everyone experiences the same symptoms to the same degree.
On a related note: I recently found the supermarket that I just knew existed but couldn't find for the past 4 or 5 years. (It is not the one where we usually shop.) Incidentally, I do not shop on my own -yet.
Posts: 797 | From New York | Registered: Feb 2008
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I always give someone a ride home from church , and one morning we got in the car and I just sat there. Totally dumbfounded. Finally my passenger said"It might help if you turn the ignition on!"
Posts: 365 | From Sylvania | Registered: Aug 2008
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just don
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1129
posted
move to small midwest towns,,,dont need blinkers,,,everybody 'KNOWS' where your going,,,seriously!!!
-------------------- just don Posts: 4548 | From Middle of midwest | Registered: May 2001
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11141
posted
quote:Originally posted by just don: move to small midwest towns,,,dont need blinkers,,,everybody 'KNOWS' where your going,,,seriously!!!
So true. Freakishly scary true!! We went to the post office and they were closed. A mailman was out front .... we said we were trying to put a stop on our mail while we were on vacation .... he said okay .... we said "but you don't know where we live" .... he said, "sure I do!"
We never got "in" there though .... even after 7 or 8 years we were still outsiders. We don't live there anymore, but it was interesting.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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