Saturday, June 12, 2010

Brain Fog Is Kicking My Ass!

Many people with an autoimmune disease experience cognitive dysfunction, otherwise known as brain fog. It is characterized by confusion, forgetfulness, and the inability to concentrate.

It's not something that I have to deal with all the time. It makes sense that someone would have trouble thinking during a flare; I can't imagine someone being able to think straight during that kind of pain. But I notice that it tends to happen to me in combination with the fever and muscle aches.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like it seriously interferes with my life. It's just damn annoying! There has been the typical forgetfulness, such as forgetting what I was talking about in the middle of a sentence or someone returns my phone call and I cannot remember why I called them in the first place. I also have to work really hard to get myself to concentrate on one task while in the office. The worst is spelling, which I have never had a problem with.

Here are some more lovely examples from the past week:
  • I completely forgot a friend's birthday, which is really weird for me. The worst part is that when she mentioned it was her birthday on the phone, I did not even try to lie. I just burst out with, "seriously?"
  • I walked by Rommel's empty prescription bottle every morning this week and said to myself, "I need to call that in." But I never did and I went through the same thing the next morning. It was like my own mini version of Groundhog Day. Rommel finally went to the pharmacy himself this morning.
  • I spent 15 minutes sitting in front of the computer trying to remember how to spell exercise. I was not even close enough for spell check to pull it up. It's like words just evaporate into thin air when I try to spell them.
  • I had to look up the three characteristics of brain fog when I started writing this post because I could only remember the first two even though I had just read the definition two minutes beforehand.
I know it's not that bad. I just hate how stupid it makes me feel sometimes. Like when I asked my boss if she was excited to go see some Elvis impersonators this weekend with her nephew. She gave me a strange look and told me that she had gone last weekend.

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