Memory loss

AK-Hopefully this will be helpful and 60 is supposed to be the new 40

www.columbia-lyme.org/patients/ld_lyme_symptoms.html

Late Neurologic Lyme Disease

a. Encephalopathy. Patients may develop cognitive problems from Lyme disease either early or many months or years after the initial infection. The cognitive problems most commonly include problems with short-term memory, problems with verbal fluency such as in name or word retrieval, and problems with slower speed of thinking.

AK,

Hi. I have that now. It is part of lyme and we will heal it - right?

Like Girlie offered, when I'm stressed it is worse. I have mostly word retrieval and that has gotten better but lately I am having trouble remembering where I put things. This is NOT me. In fact, my husband has always been this way and I am the brain/memory for my entire family. My brain can't go.

Not to make light of it, it's scary but I think detox can help. My holistic practitioner gave me homeopathic tablets and they have helped tremendously. I wish I could tell you what they are. I also take cod liver oil, mega ortho EFAs, Mitochore, and Wobynzyme PS all help with inflammation and/or the brain.

Have a great day - it's Saturday by the way

Thanks you guys!! I have just been so terrified and almost afraid to ask anyone..... It is good to hear what others have experienced. My friend told me recently that you could have lyme and Alzheimer's.... (with friend's like that......) ! Girlie, there are a few days of late that I think that I would like to cross off the calendar and NOT experience..! (Not very zen of me is it!?!!!)

For me the memory issues are frightening.... My first round I stood up for many hours one day because I forgot to sit down....... I actually forgot what my face looked like and didnt recognize it in the mirror..... these things were so extreme and came on suddenly after many years of being sick and then hit after the first four days of doxy...... so a herx for sure.... (That was 20 years ago and I always thought that I got hit too hard with a death combo of abx and had a toxic brain - long before we knew about detoxing....so probably was spot on in my thinking!) The word searching a cotton candy feeling in my head was over the top....horrible but I KNEW that it was lyme.. I was also young then and didnt even consider dementia.

This relapse round it is just that the memory issues are presenting so differently and I am older.....My brain can feel clear but I am losing things, putting things away and forgetting that I even had them, forgetting whole events that I always (in my previous life) would have remembered. I too Huddie have a husband who is always like this (although he is being treated for Bb too) and even through the first round of lyme, I have been the brain /memory of this whole family....(my friend told me that if she ever had to go to therapy, she would take me because I remembered her childhood better that she did) . It hits hard to have that go to ground zero! I sometimes laugh, thinking that I could become a hoarder because I will forget what I already own!

,,,,,Forgetting so much is NOT me..... like a family visit a few years ago to the most beautiful quarry for swimming. ( our dog ran away chasing a deer...something I would have remembered) ..A visit from a friend last summer when the refrgerator repair guys asked my friend if he knew anything about refrigerators (it had to have been funny!) I was right there but have no memory of it,,,...I also ALWAYS hung on to numbers. I had to hunt through piles and piles of bills to find out how much money I had lent my son..(normally I would have remembered that one) And I could not remember the amount that my dad's house sold for for taxes,,,,(these are not things that I couldn't look up,,,and they are not life and death ,but they are just so different for me that it is just freaking me out,,,,,) The "thickness" (brain fog), word searching, concentration issues are familiar to me. This other stuff (when my brain feels "clear" and I forget) feels so much closer to dementia... and then I do have a friend who's mom has been sitting in a nursing home after getting lyme and being treated for one month with an IV.....she later started complaining of memory issues........so yes, TRAVELER keep at treatment, heal is the mantra....

..Traveler....I am sorry for what you went through but it is hopeful hear that it can come back.... and yes, the detox detox detox.... I feel like so much of this is just the combo of infection (and toxic slurpee that is my brain...!)

Thanks you guys! I am sorry that any of us are going through this... it is a horrible home made illness that hits so many good good people.....

My memory has been awful lately, and I'm only 34. I forgot how old my oldest son was. I thought for sure he was 9 but he is 10. I only realized this after I was talking to my husband about this other kid and I was like, he is the same age as Jett, 9! And my husband was like.....no? LOL! Not really that funny!
I forgot what airline I was flying out on yesterday so I ended up in the wrong terminal, waited in line for the wrong ticket counter. Forgot how to get to baggage claim in an airport I have been to a hundred times. Just stupid stuff that makes me feel like a wandering idiot.

I've had substantial memory loss... I've lost big chunks of time. I am not old either. Some of this was related to bad mercury issues (living in a house where gas meter was moved and mercury mess not cleaned up) ... I doubt it ever comes back. Good news is I can make up a past that suits who I am now 😂😂😂. Sorry... bad joke.

Most recently, I had a terrible time talking. Would lose words to not think of things I wanted to say, losing a thought mid-sentence... that is really not happening at all now...

What helps with the memory? I am 63 and been treating since I got bit in 2011.

Isn't ashwaghanda suppose to help?

Lately I cant remember names ...like my adult childrens' friends names? Actors/actresses? Movie titles, etc

Scarey.

Ak have you found anything that helps with the memory issue ?

I have not found anything that I can pin point to help with memory issues. I am sometimes clear as a bell, other times battling pea soup in the brain.

I think the generalized forgetfulness might be age related but word searching and going blank not so much.

My ND prescribed me Nuero-mag for something else, but it's also supposed to help with brain issues.

AK! - I experienced so much of what you're describing over a period of two years.
I am noticing a lot of improvement a year later, and the one thing that i have implemented (other than a Lot of diet changes, journaling); is MCT OIl - i add it to my coffee, and I immediately started noticing a boost in my memory. One of the things i struggled with is trying to find the right word; i would say a word but that wasn't the word i was trying to say.

I also wouldn't even be able to read a sentence without knowing what it said, now i have read multiple books and i love love that MCT oil has made such a big impact.

I use the Nutiva MCT Organic oil - i started slow with 1 tsp, and now have worked my way up to 1 TBSP (my LLND is also encouraging of this when she found out I was using it

See if it's something that you can implement ? if you don't drink coffee - take a spoonful of it straight just like it is.

sounds so much like what i used to do .

I would get phone calls form my partner throughout the day asking me why her car keys were in the refrigerator; or why dirty dishes; or the other random thing i put in there i believe was a scarf.

Traveler said...
I would find the cereal in the refrigerator, and milk in the pantry (ew!), or my dirty clothes in the trash can and something that belonged in the trash can in my dirty clothes hamper. The stories just go on and on and on! I'm glad that I generally think more clearly now, but they do make for something to giggle over sometimes!

The looking into a mirror and not recognizing your face sounds like depersonalization/derealization. I used to deal with this a lot, but fortunately it only now hits me when I'm at my worst. You can find a pretty good description of it here: http://www.tiredoflyme.com/depersonalization-and-derealization-from-lyme-disease-and-its-coinfections.html

And now, in my personal situation, I am the one with the better memory - unless I'm dealing with quite a bit of brain fog that day. Hubby relies on me to remember a lot of different things - so there's always hope!!