Odd...

[MikeHeim]

I had hoped that I had gotten to the point where I only needed to respond to posts, not start them, but I had something odd happen today that I wanted to get input on..

Around noon today, I had a really strange occurance. I was sitting in my boss' office for a meeting and I suddenly couldn't recall what I was doing there. I couldn't remember anything that had happened since I had gotten up, and had no idea what day or time it was. I did, however, know who I was, knew the other people sitting in the room, and had no problem speaking clearly. I did not have any numbness, didn't have any loss of coordination, and didn't have any other symptoms that would make me think I was having a stroke or even a TIA - just the total and complete memory loss. Over the course of the next hour, everything got better and I feel pretty much back to normal and I do remember the whole day now (although today does feel like a little bit of a haze). Has this happened to anyone else? I considered excusing myself and going to the nurse, but in the end I decided to wait it out and see what happened. I had this happen one other time - it was on the Monday night after a long weekend, and I suddenly realized that I couldn't remember a single thing I had done that weekend. That happened back in college all the time, but for a different reason.

As always, thanks for the input.

 

[catwoman]

Mike:

Did you call your PCP?

 

[Christina L]

Mike -

Mike -

that doesn't sound good.

I know I have really weird times where I cannot remember things and have a terrible brain fog type of feeling. Just today I was driving out of Boulder after my endo appointment and got freaked out because I couldn't think of where I was in Boulder - what road I was on. It is very scary. I attribute my brain fog and such to the hypothyroidism (it is a classic symptom of that).

Have you had your thyroid checked? Otherwise, talk to your doctor about this.

Christina L

 

[geebee]

Mike,

Sorry to tell you this but you need to talk to your doctor. Moments like that do not happen for no reason and could be a sign of something serious.

Please go see your doctor.

 

[PegB]

Mike,

Is it at all possible that you fell asleep for a few minutes and didn't realize it? I know it seems really crazy, but I have had times when it happened, especially in a meeting and at the end of a long week. I "woke up" in such a terrifying state of confusion, and sort of panicky, but trying to act perfectly normal. Really scary! It was when I was really sleep deprived, and was only getting about 4 hours of sleep.

 

[Karlynn]

Not to scare you, but not all TIA's involve loss of coordination or numbness. You need to contact your doctor about this in order to cover all your bases.

 

[Blanche]

Maybe a tia

Maybe a tia

Mike:
Karlynn beat me to it, but my sense of things said TIA. It isn't unusual, but you should surely talk to your medical people about this at once.
Best regards,
Blanche

 

[hensylee]

check in w/dr........ Don't wait for it to happen again. The tell us.

I have had moments when I was riding along (as the passenger), woolgathering, and when I came around I wondered where we were! I was completely misplaced. Now I try not to woolgather - esp if I am the driver!

 

[MikeHeim]

Mike:

Did you call your PCP?

I'll put a call in on Monday. I actually don't have an official PCP at this point. When I moved to Cali four years ago, I hadn't seen a doctor in about five years so I didn't figure I needed one. When I started getting the SOB symptoms, I went to an Urgent Care clinic because I didn't want to put in the effort of finding a doctor in SoCal that was actually taking new patients. The Urgent Care doc referred me to a Cardiologist, and the rest is pretty much history. After my surgery, I kept going to the Urgent Care clinic, and I actually know the main doctor pretty well at this point. I'll see what he says...

BTW, I'm pretty confident that I wasn't asleep yesterday. Later in the afternoon, I brought up what happened to another person who was at the meeting and he told me I looked fine and was talking the whole time.

 

[Susan BAV]

You may be in for a whole battery of tests. Keep us posted, okay? Hopefully it'll never happen again...

Also, you haven't been hit in the head in the last several months have you, or had any whiplash or anything? I was thinking of something called Complex Partial Seizure, related to a head injury, which you don't want to be diagnosed with. The doctor may send you off to a neurologist for testing. A baseline CT scan of the brain might be one thing they'll want.

Make sure you tell the doctor what your coworker said -- that you looked fine and were talking the whole time. That can hopefully rule out several possibilities. Emphasize that point, I think.

 

[MikeHeim]

I just looked up TIA's on Google and couldn't find a single website that listed acute or sudden memory loss as a symptom. Virtually all the symptoms listed are those that you would expect for a mini-stroke: numbness or weakness, loss of coordination, slurred speech, and dizziness. As it was happening, I took stock of myself and made sure my arms and legs moved normally, and as I mentioned in a previous post, my speech seemed totally unaffected to those around me. I certainly will still talk to a doctor on Monday, but I'm now less convinced that it was a TIA. Of course, I still am open to any ideas that others may have.

BTW, I have not had a head injury of late. The last time my Thyroid was checked out was about 18 months ago, and everything came back normal.

Thanks again.

 

[Aussie Chris]

Hi Mike, I am sorry to here about your "odd symptoms". Hope it all turns out to be nothing on Monday.
Cheers, Chris

 

[barbwil]

Mike, Google "sudden loss of memory" and you will see that you will need help to figure this out because the possibilities are endless.

 

[DavesMom]

Hi Mike,

Sorry to hear about this and like everyone else I urge you to notify the doc.

I think Susan may be on the right track mentioning complex partial seizures. I had an incident very similar to yours several years ago. I knew where I was (though nothing seemed to look quite right), knew who I was, could speak and everything, but my memory just went. I couldn't even remember my own phone number let alone that of my best friend or my parents. I got REALLY upset and scared but after an hour everything came back. Had another one a couple of days later so decided to see the doc.

They immediately thought TIA because of my mechanical valve. I had a TEE (quite the lovely experience) : ) and an MRI, both of which were fine. They finally sent me to the neurologist, who ordered an EEG and it showed that I was having complex partial seizures. I've never had a head injury or anything so the frustrating thing is that they were never able to give me a reason why I suddenly started having these. I often wonder if the seizures are somehow related to my rather lengthy surgery or my lovely mechanical valve.

If they are complex partials they can be controlled with meds. I've only had a couple of minor episodes since then but nothing as scary as those first two.

Take care and hope everything works out well.

Cheers,
Michelle

 

[Karlynn]

Don't Google yourself out of running this past a doctor!

 

[tobagotwo]

I have a friend who went through something very similar to your experience. It was determined to be a temporary condition called Transient Global Amnesia. TGA isn't a harmful condition at all. While you want to check with your GP to be sure it wasn't a TIA, here's some quick reading:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/transient-global-amnesia/AN00248 by Mayo Clinic neurologist Jerry Swanson, M.D., It begins with this paragraph:

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is sudden, short-term memory loss during which a person is unable to learn new information. During an episode, you remain alert and have no other signs or symptoms, such as numbness or weakness. You may repeat the same question over and over, such as "What time is it?" or "Where are we going?" You know who you are and can recognize family members. You may even perform complex tasks, such as driving a car...

Of course, there are many other articles about it available on the web.

Best wishes,

 

[debster913]

That's strange. I've read through the posts and concur that you should see your doctor. I've gone through the same thing after surgery. About two weeks post-op, I was sitting in the living room visiting with some family who'd come over to see me and like you said, Mike, I knew who I was, but couldn't remember what day it was and honestly believed I hadn't even had my surgery yet. Back in October, I'd had another "episode." Mike and I were driving to the market (I was in the passenger seat) and I was talking to him about helping me get ready for school in the fall. I thought it was 2005, not 2006, and Mike said, "Deb, it's October (whatever day it was). You have work tomorrow." After a few more confusing minutes, everything was OK. I did run this by my GP when I saw her for allergy stuff a few weeks later and she said it was nothing to worry about, just plain ol' post-surgery pumpheadedness.

But, DO tell your doctor!

Debi

 

[LaughClown]

Im only 11 weeks post-op, but a few of weeks ago I started forgetting everything, where i put things, what day it was, important calls i had to make, I locked my keys in the car a couple times, i would pick something up, set it down for a second, and forget thats why I even went in the room.
It got really annoying after I kept forgetting important things I needed to do so I started writing everything down and keeping the notes with me.
Then last week it started getting better. Im almost back to normal and pretty positive it was pump related.

 

[MikeHeim]

I promised an update in an earlier post, so here goes...

I went to the PCP and went through the battery of tests that is to be expected. I first had an ultrasound on my carotid artery, which came back negative (to be honest, I don't even really know what they were looking for). I had what felt like a quart of blood taken, and the only things that came back were that my blood sugar was slightly high and my LDL was slightly high. Both were higher than average, neither were anything to be concerned about. Finally, I had an MRI done on my brain, and they found nothing (insert your own joke here). To make a long story short, everything came back normal, so my PCP's best guess was that my annuloplasty ring was somehow throwing clots, so he wanted me to get a TEE done to look at it. My Cardiologist said that this was "ridiculous" and that he had never heard of such a thing. ESPECIALLY as long after surgery as I am. I did my own research and couldn't find any reference to such a thing happening, so I'm inclined to believe the Cardio (= no TEE).

Anyways, thanks for the information. I actually like the TGA suggestion that Bob gave, except for the fact that it usually happens in people over 50. It could also be some residual pumpheadedness. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

 

[WayneGM]

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear things seem to be fine.