Things you remember and things you forget

[valeriedl]

I lost over 10 years of memory after my first seizure. Since I've had epilepsy I'll forget things that have happened years, months, weeks and even days ago. However there are things that just stick up there. It seems like they are things that I really liked or are funny.

There was a job that I worked at about 5 years before my first seizure and I loved it. I swear I could probably go back there and work with no problems. However the job that I was working at when I had my first seizure I hardly remember a thing about, only when people tell me and I still may not remember it. There are other jobs I worked at that I really don't remember much but it seems if something funny went on there I remember that and can tell people about it before they tell me.

The guy I was dating when I had my first seizure I didn't even know who he was after the seizure (guess what that says about him)! However a guy that I'd been seeing a good many years before it I could probably tell you everything about.

Since I've had epilepsy there are so many things that I don't remember. But there was the time my husband saw a space ship, told him he should go work at Area 51 after he told me about it. There are some other goofy things like that and my husband always says "Why can't you forget that!" A few years after Ronald Reagan died something came on TV about him and his death, I had no clue he was even dead! My husband told me that we'd watched his funeral on TV but I don't remember doing it. For about 2 years any time something would come on TV about him being dead I still had no clue he was! My husband would get mad because he thought I was joking with him but I was serious. After that 2 years I did remember it because it did become a joke.

There are so many other things like this. Does anyone else have this happen too?

 

[masterjen]

Hi, Valerie;

I don't have the extent of memory problems you are describing, but I do find that after a seizure I have problems remembering things that occurred before the seizure, esp. what someone may have said to me. This is most pronounced for what was said or took place in the past 24 hours before a seizure but can also be for more than the 24 hours before. If someone were to say to me the day following a nocturnal seizure: "Hey, I told you (x, y, z) yesterday; how come you didn't remember?" it might sound familiar, but I would not have any true recall of it.

 

[Frink]

I too have huge holes in my memory, years of information is missing or more accurately I think the information is misplaced because sometimes things I cannot remember will pop into my memory at random times.

Before the head injury I had a damn near eidetic memory, in school I never had to take notes or do homework because I could just replay the last class the teacher had taught and I would get an A.

 

[N Sperlo]

I don't have major memory problems, but I do have trouble remembering quite a bit. I could go back to many jobs and easily do them again.

There are thing that really bug me. My wife had to remind me we had seen U2 in concert. I had completely forgotten. I have trouble remembering names from my childhood, which was not that long ago. Even people from high school just over 12 years ago.

I still remember enough, but worry my medicine or just the e itself has been a factor.

 

[gnault]

I guess you can say my memory is pretty bad some days. The other day I came home from shopping and missed enough stuff that my wife asked me about the list. I forgot that I had the list. She in frustration said that might as well just do all the shopping. She usually backs down when she actually backs down when it's time to go to COSTCO.

 

[skyfire322]

I don't have long term memory issues to that extent, but my short term memory is pretty much non-existent, particularly after a seizure. For me, it could be an event that occurred 10 minutes or 10 hours, it's as if nothing even happened.

 

[valeriedl]

My wife had to remind me we had seen U2 in concert. I had completely forgotten.

Really funny thing but the same thing happened to me, and it was a U2 concert too!!!!! Maybe they aren't worth remembering? :roflmao:

I don't have long term memory issues to that extent, but my short term memory is pretty much non-existent, particularly after a seizure. For me, it could be an event that occurred 10 minutes or 10 hours, it's as if nothing even happened.

When I first started having seizures my memory was very bad and I was just like that. I'd find things in the house that I had no clue where they came from and it turned out that I'd had a seizure shortly after I'd bought them. My short term memory, like things that happened a few days or weeks ago, isn't quite that bad now. My long term memory is horrible though.

Just this morning however I'd gotten up at 7am to take my meds, feed my cats then got back in bed to go back to sleep. I remember doing all this. When I got up a few hours later I was going to put on the t-shirt I'd worn the day before to put on over my pj's, which are a tank top and boxer shorts. It should have been in the hamper but it wasn't so I started looking around because I couldn't find it then looked down and saw I had it on! I don't know if I'd put it on before I'd gotten back in bed, while I was asleep or when I'd gotten up later but I don't remember putting it on at all.

 

[Sabbo]

My memory issues are all short term. Sometimes I go upstairs to do something, & then don't recall what I needed to do, or I'll forget what I have to tell someone. These problems began when I started taking Topamax, & seem to have worsened a little now that my second AED is Vimpat.
I can often recall things from when I was a little kid. On our trip to South Dakota, I had my husband take us by the apartment I lived in. My mother was shocked when she saw the photo--she couldn't recognize the place.

 

[Cint]

I lost over 10 years of memory after my first seizure. Since I've had epilepsy I'll forget things that have happened years, months, weeks and even days ago. ......
Since I've had epilepsy there are so many things that I don't remember......
My husband would get mad because he thought I was joking with him but I was serious......

There are so many other things like this. Does anyone else have this happen too?

Memory problems and E go hand in hand. Some of it could be the meds, some of it could be the brain itself. In your case, since you had a brain tumor, that definitely could effect memory. In my case, after I had a temporal lobectomy, my memory went down the tubes. I really have a hard time remembering. My epileptologist sent me to a neuropsychologist to help me with a plan for remembering. I have to write things down, especially names. I forget names of people I just met the day or two before. I also suffer aphasia (finding words), so that is very frustrating. I'll be mid-sentence and forget what I am talking about because I cannot get the right word. And like you, my ex used to get so angry because he thought I was joking when I couldn't remember. He even said, "That is unbelievable." So with an attitude like his, that is why I had to leave him! It can be devastating to one with a damaged hippocampus--the memory area of the brain.

Here is a link for more info on E and memory:

http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/impact/thinking-and-memory/thinking-memory-and-epilepsy

 

[Sabbo]

Topamax ("Dopamax") is known for causing word-loss issues. Sometimes when I'm talking about something, I KNOW what I want to say but can't. I can see the words I need in my mind as though they're written on paper, but my mind & mouth can't connect.

 

[Cint]

Topamax ("Dopamax") is known for causing word-loss issues. Sometimes when I'm talking about something, I KNOW what I want to say but can't. I can see the words I need in my mind as though they're written on paper, but my mind & mouth can't connect.

Yep! I've been on that drug, too. Years ago, I was put on it and when I was on the highest dose, I was in zombieland. Couldn't remember my name. But, it can also cause weight loss! I lost 25 lbs. initially. It also takes away one's appetite, at least that's what it did to me.

Common side effects of Topamax include: dizziness, memory impairment, speech disturbance, anxiety, dysphasia, drowsiness, psychomotor disturbance, confusion, fatigue, diarrhea, paresthesia, nausea, ataxia, lack of concentration, diplopia, nervousness, depression, visual disturbance, weight loss, mood changes, dysgeusia, and anorexia. Other side effects include: arthralgia, and weakness.

And as I stated in my last post, memory problems can go along with E!

 

[seagull]

Do lamactcal cause this problem aswel.I try explain it as verbal dyslexia.i not on that drug but my got empathy.i gone from thinking got alzimers to stroke brain damage mental altho have wondered if going mad with it or is it just something some e people have very frustrating.It happens when I writing aswel I see the word even spell it in my head but something between brain hand or tongue it evaporates sometimes just want cry with it

 

[valeriedl]

I have to write things down, especially names. I forget names of people I just met the day or two before. I also suffer aphasia (finding words), so that is very frustrating. I'll be mid-sentence and forget what I am talking about because I cannot get the right word.

I'm SO horrible with names!!!!! I always say people should wear name tags. If I can't associate their name to something, like if their name is Adam and so is my brother's, then I can forget it while I'm talking to them. I went out last weekend with my husband, his son and his son's girlfriend. My husbnad had said her name before we met up with them but the whole time we were together I called his son's girlfriend by his son's ex-girlfriend's name to her face! I didn't realize it until I did it until we got home and my husband said something about his son's girlfriend using her real name. My husband must not have noticed it because he didn't say anything to me about it. Were at a concert and it was really loud, and very hard to hear people talking, so I'm hoping his son's girlfriend didn't hear I was doing it!

I'm horrible with words too. I can be looking at it or see in my mind exactly what word I want to use but I just can't think of it. I know there's a game (of course I can't remember what it's called) that you have to describe something using words and your hands and it's like I'm playing it with them. I was trying to say 'freezer' but all I could tell the person was "It's the rectangle thing in the kitchen that you keep food in, the really cold part of it." Once I was trying to say the word 'cat', "The little furry thing that runs around the house", but it just wouldn't come out. When I'm on the computer I've had to google things related to the word so I can find out what it is.

Thanks for the link it relates to what I have going on with my epilepsy and seizures!