Trouble finding, remembering words

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I also keep a note book on the refrigerator to write down anything we need from the store as soon as I see we need it. Then I write things one one in my purse. I also go through the house a few times toward the end of the month to see what we're going to need when we do our monthly household shopping. And of course write it all down.
 
It seems like the last few months I have had a major increase in trouble with finding words or remembering words. Example, on just trying to type example I had to stop and think of what the word was I wanted to use, it didn't just come to me like it normally would have.

I may be talking about one of our dogs and can't remember their name and we've had them for many years.

I'm also having a lot more trouble with short term memory. I'll think of something I want to do in the kitchen while I'm in the living room and if it's more than a couple minutes before I get in there when I do I have no idea why I'm there. I'm also a voracious reader and if I'm reading a book and put it down for more than a few hours I have to go back several pages and reread to remember what is going on.

It is very frustrating and scary. Does anyone else have this trouble? Any suggestions to help it? I do write down lists of things I want/need to do for a couple days out and for items at the store, but anything for just everyday things?
Clovis: You are low on magnesium. Having EP, I know what you are "trying to think of" when you have to stop and think. I was born with EP and 55 years later I discovered magnesium. I took (3) 250mg daily and my partials completely disappeared in 9 months. I don't have to stop and think anymore. Please look into it.
 
I also make lists of stuff I have to get or things that have to be done. I keep a dry erase board on the fridge to write things I need as I notice them.
 
I have a 'to do' list, a note book in the kitchen. Food we need is usually wrote at the top and places or things to do are written. If there's something that I need to buy and it's something I need but might not remember the brand. I take a picture of it so I know what it looks like and I get the right thing.
If it's something to do around the house then it's kept on a separate list.
 
I also make lists of stuff I have to get or things that have to be done. I keep a dry erase board on the fridge to write things I need as I notice them.
I do the same but I have a white board on my breakfast bar. As I think of things I’ll write it down . I use a notepad app on my phone which has a few features including shopping list. The night before I’m due to go shopping I’ll transfer what I got on the whiteboard onto my phone then do a quick look around just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

I usually tend to keep the stuff written on the whiteboard until after I been shopping because sometimes I miss things. Other times I’ve deleted the shopping list of my phone and once a couple of years ago I was about to transfer what I needed onto my phone when I had a seizure. When I came to I saw I’d wiped the whiteboard clean during the seizure before I’d transferred it on my phone. Luckily there wasn’t much on there and I managed to remember some, just had to go through and recheck.
 
Clovis: You are low on magnesium. Having EP, I know what you are "trying to think of" when you have to stop and think. I was born with EP and 55 years later I discovered magnesium. I took (3) 250mg daily and my partials completely disappeared in 9 months. I don't have to stop and think anymore. Please look into it.

I will, thank you. I take calcium with D and magnesium but I don't know how much. I will look into it and try it. Certainly can't hurt. Thank you!
 
Hi Folks,

If you have some free time get a piece of paper and write down the word "Washington D.C." then see how many different words you can come up with my changing the letters around and writing them in different languages. See if you can get over 210 different words, this is the most
I've seen anyone ever get. This helps better the memory along with having someone read off a grocery list to you once and you have to that person what was on the list in order. It's not easy but it betters the memory according to my neurosurgeon. Here's wishing all of you only the best and May God Bless You!

Sue
 
All types of word games & puzzles are good for the memory. Another fun thing are those word jumble puzzles that often appear in newspapers. Now those can be found in a book, too.
 
I like that word game idea Porkette, I'll have to try that.

I have several magazines with all kinds of word puzzles. I like ones called double trouble and syallacrostics best.
 
Reading most here it has been interesting. Two months ago my neurologist decided to add another drug for me to take... the interesting part here is he let me know up front that I was going to lose more memory than I’ve lost in surgery and with current drugs I take. The worst part of increased memory loss here is names :-(
 
I have plenty of problems with memory. Long and short term. I'm told that it is due to my concussions, and my medications. Aphasia is supposedly common for epileptics and that I'm not to let it bother me; but not remembering Uncle's and other relatives I'm supposed to have known all my life is been VERY bothersome indeed. And the aphasia is weird. I can always remember the word 'aphasia' but NOT the word that I'm groping for, until it's way too late in the conversation. I have a lot of trouble with both, as well as a BIT of self-pity.
Short and long term memory issues have led me to write everything down in a different ---there it is, forgot the word--- like a book but it's empty, just has lines in it for writing things. JOURNAL. That only took a minute or two, THIS time. But until I grab that book, I won't remember. And even then, I read it, feeling like someone else wrote it. That's where the self-pity comes in. Nothing for it though so I just cope as best I can.
 
Forgotten words still seems like such a a small thing compared to when you can't talk or write after a seizure still know what you want to say.
 
Forgotten words still seems like such a a small thing compared to when you can't talk or write after a seizure still know what you want to say.
I relate. Of all of the languages that I used to know, now I'm forgetting English and how to spell it, sentence structure, all of it in bits and pieces it's just slipping away. ASL helps, I can still Sign a bit so if I can't think of a word, I try to remember it in Sign. Sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't. My ASL was crap from the start.
 
It killed me once. I was trying to work as a photographer for at the Southern Baptist convention one year. But I was doing security at a bdsm convention the night before. Do to lack of sleep I had a seizure that morning and was still post tictal in the car. I was lucky to have a really good assistant and managed to pull off most of the job with out talking and just an x on the floor and lots of points.
 
Other things I enjoy doing indoors are quilting--especially because it involves so much geometry & counted cross stitch embroidery. I love gardening--I grow lots of vegetables each summer, & enjoy photography as well.
 
really one of the best ways to tell if i need to relax for the day is if my dislogia gets really bad. a few people know how i talk well enough to just tell me quit
 
What's especially annoying to me about memory issues caused by these meds is when I'm having a conversation & it takes a long time to express what I want to say.
Another big problem is recognizing people--unless I see them on a regular basis or I've seen them many years (family or my parents' friends, for example)--recalling a person's name is often hard for me.
 
We were at the ER recently, and the Dr kept asking the same question over and again, my answer was always the same "I DON'T REMEMBER" and I told him "I'm epileptic, have had uncountable... and the word wouldn't come to me. I Signed to my Wife, "what is concussion" and she answered out loud "concussions?" I pointed at her, looked at him and nodded, explaining further aloud that I'd cracked my skull two or three times, unsure, probably just twice really. But that it had affected my memory, therefore I DON'T REMEMBER, SIR. I still don't think that the guy believed me. The jerk.
 
Another big problem is recognizing people--unless I see them on a regular basis or I've seen them many years (family or my parents' friends, for example)--recalling a person's name is often hard for me.
I have a horrible problem remembering peoples names. If I see them regularly then the name usually sticks up there like it does for you. But if it's someone I only see once in awhile I have a heck of a time remembering their name. If I can relate the name to something else then I'll usually remember it.

Just recently I was with my sister-in-laws mother. I hardly ever see her and I just could not remember her name no matter how many times my mom told me it was. I had to keep asking my mom her name so I could talk to her. My mom finally told me that she had the first name as one of our family friends, I managed to remember it then.

I do this with people, places, dates and so many other things. It seems the goofier the thing that I relate it to the better I remember it.
 
To be honest I don't even ask for names anymore. Give someone a chance to talk about themselves and they will
 
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