OT - Recognize These Symptoms?

Kajikit wrote:

The only person I know who has the difficulties you are describing has
MS but she also has tons of physical symptoms to go along with it...
she loses words and forgets things all the time but when you read her
writing she sounds fine.

This is why I asked Fil about physical symptoms. I also am not medically
trained in any way, so my opinion isn't worth a whole lot, but that is
what I would be asking my doctor to investigate.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

Enfilade wrote:

Menopause: gods, at 30??

Well, yeah. That's why I said "you seem a bit young for that". I do
know someone who had menopause in her early 40s, which is also pretty
young (and it wasn't due to surgery), but 30 would be outlandish. One
good way to tell if you're not in menopause would be if you're still
menstruating.

(and it's not that I can't recognize
colours, more that I can't tell for "sure" if a stop light is "on" or
not. Yeah, I can guess with 95%-98% accuracy, but it feels bad
"guessing" and running reds if I guess wrong. That only happened
twice, but it scared me.

That does sound scary, but for the record, I sometimes have trouble
with this, too. Not to minimize your episode, since I don't know how
difficult it was for you to tell, but when I'm sitting and waiting for
a light to change, it's sometimes hard to tell if the opposing light
has gone to yellow yet. I know that's different from not knowing
whether the light *facing* you has changed. But those lights are
sometimes hard to see in daylight.

Body: Not that I noticed other than my left hand, which lost feeling/
grip 4 years ago, was mostly dead for about 7 months, and continues to
occasionally tingle, spasm, go dead for a minute, or get pins-and-
needles, particularly if I bend my arm or put any pressure on the
elbow.

Do you know why that happened? Did you have an accident or injury, or
repetitive stress that might have caused it? Are you aware of pinched
nerves higher up your arm or around your shoulder or neck?

I ask this because I have problems with this. I have a lot of pinched
nerves around my neck and shoulder, especially when I first get up in
the morning. When I massage the right place on my neck or shoulder, I
get feeling back in my hand, but it can continue to bother me throughout
the day. I have to stop what I'm doing to stretch and massage my neck
so I can type or do whatever it is I'm doing with my hand.

I got x-rays on my neck and shoulder (left side) and there is some
arthritis and degeneration which causes nerve pinching. I think this
is caused mostly by years of computer use, and also from the way I sleep,
because I tend to wake up with my neck turned sharply to the side. My
hand will often be completely numb, and sometimes in pain when I first
wake up because of the pinching higher up.

When my hand is numb, I don't have enough sensation in my fingers to
give my brain the right feedback about what's going on. So I get very
clumsy doing stuff like tying my shoes. But a massage to the neck makes
it better, at least temporarily. Eventually, when I've been up and about
for a while, moving around, etc, my hands function normally. I've never
had weakness in my grip. This doesn't seem to affect my strength at all.

My issue isn't neurological at all - it's just a pinched nerve. That
in itself can cause a lot of problems (eg, I also have carpal tunnel
syndrome, which in advanced stages can be fairly disabling), but it's
still very different from symptoms that originate in your brain. I
really hope your doctor starts there, since that seems to be where most
of your problems are.

Purrs that you find out what's going on ASAP!

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

Some good news today:

1. Sleep. It was awesome.
2. I had a talk with my new employer and what they are going to do is
see if they can split my job there into two part-time jobs. This will
a) have the other person be primarily responsible for accounting,
which I stink at, b) let me concentrate on the communication/
newsletter/stuff I'm best at, c) still let me make a living wage
overall, d) give me 15-20 hours of week at the clinic and 15 at the
Albert inn, e) both jobs are working to stagger my hours so I don't do
any more back-to-back shifts.

I put off the doc today in favour of sleeping and tomorrow Kumani has
a vet checkup so I'm going to the doc in the first available slot next
week (probably Monday morning.)

I have had my blood pressure checked in the last month and it is
excellent.

As for the nerve damage - no, nobody knows why. My neurologist in
Halifax (not DP) says I have had some kind of accident, and says it
makes no sense I do not recall any such accident. The most logical
explanation is that a lifetime of leaning on my left elbow every time
I sit down has caused wear/pinching over time, but that puts the issue
in the elbow, not the head (if this explanation is true). I've mostly
eliminated this bad habit but...

If I'm lucky, my mom says that eccentric personality + stress = looney
tunes. If this is all it is, I'm golden. However, I am not going to
presume, I'm going to check it out properly.

(I'm a strange bird. I'm going to admit that right now. My parents
struggled for years with psychiatrists who said "there's nothing /
wrong/ with your kid, she just perceives reality in a way that's alien
to most people, and you're equally strange to her.")

Here in Canada, consultations are free, and I have an excellent drug/
dental/visual plan provided by DP's employment.

Thanks for the wellwishes. Luv u guyz!

--Fil





Do you know why that happened? Did you have an accident or injury, or
repetitive stress that might have caused it? Are you aware of pinched
nerves higher up your arm or around your shoulder or neck?

"Enfilade" wrote in message
...
I'm going to the doctor tomorrow or the day after (I'm working three
insane shifts: 12 pm to 8 pm, 11 pm to 6:30 am, and 7:15 to 1 pm -
close to 24 hours straight of awake working.)

I can't find any info on the net: I don't even know what to search
for. Anyone here have an idea?

--Constant misperception: mistaking one thing for another, or one
word for another (in extreme cases, seeing things that aren't there,
or not seeing things that are there) It feels like someone is
"Switching things around" behind your back, though you know they
aren't.

--Suddenly getting something familiar wrong--like suddenly mixing up
your phone number - and not being able to tell whether the number
you've given is right or wrong

--Triple-checking things and still making lots of errors

--Leaving stove burners on, taps going, etc. Double checking them and
thinking they are off--they're not--you only find out when 1. you
leave and come back, 2. you get another cue like the smell of a stove
burner or notice the sound of running water 3 somone else points it
out

--Mixing up words: like saying "now" instead of "new", "bucket"
instead of "basket" (or, in extreme cases, "cup" instead of basket -
ie an object to hold things and letting the listener guess the correct
word from that)

--Getting counts wrong

--Not being able to perceive errors until another person shows them to
you - ie you count two, double-count two, triple-count two, and only
when someone comes along to point out that there are four, can you
perceive that there are four, and never have been two.

--Having to write down basic information - like your phone number, bus
number, name of your employer, address - and having to check it before
giving it out, even years later (ie repetition does not help you
remember)

--in the end, being never quite sure what is real or what
isn't....it's all a guess, and you regularly guess wrong.


Fil
I was originally going to suggest sleep deprivation as others did, but you
say you've had these symptoms for a while when you had enough sleep.
I don't want to scare you but you need to go to the doctor tomorrow not the
next day. It might be something easily treated, but there is something
neurological going on which needs immediate attention to sort it out.

Tweed

Enfilade wrote:

1. Sleep. It was awesome.

Hooray!! Sleep is indeed awesome - from someone who is chronically
underslept.

2. I had a talk with my new employer and what they are going to do is
see if they can split my job there into two part-time jobs. This will
a) have the other person be primarily responsible for accounting,
which I stink at, b) let me concentrate on the communication/
newsletter/stuff I'm best at, c) still let me make a living wage
overall, d) give me 15-20 hours of week at the clinic and 15 at the
Albert inn, e) both jobs are working to stagger my hours so I don't do
any more back-to-back shifts.

That's *wonderful*. I'm glad they're both willing to work with you on it.

(I'm a strange bird. I'm going to admit that right now. My parents
struggled for years with psychiatrists who said "there's nothing /
wrong/ with your kid, she just perceives reality in a way that's alien
to most people, and you're equally strange to her.")

You're a geek, that's all! I can tell by the fact that you have a huge
collection of toys-for-adults.

I know lots of people who have "alternate perceptions of reality". They
feel like aliens in the larger world, but they do seem to get along great
with each other. If you lived in the San Jose, California area, you would
be *surrounded* by such people.

Here in Canada, consultations are free, and I have an excellent drug/
dental/visual plan provided by DP's employment.

Good luck with the doctor visit!

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

"Enfilade" wrote in message
...
...
As for the nerve damage - no, nobody knows why. My neurologist
in
Halifax (not DP) says I have had some kind of accident, and
says it
makes no sense I do not recall any such accident...

In the UK, sometimes the terminology "accident" is used to
describe thrombosis (i.e. a blood clot in a vein) or a bleed - as
in "she's had a neurological accident". Google will explain, if
you search for "neurological accident".

I have a condition described as "transient hypoglycaemia". For
years, I thought this meant it wouldn't continue to happen. With
the coming of the internet comes a realisation that my
understanding of the term "transient" was different to the one
that doctors use.

--
MatSav

On Jul 18, 4:40*pm, Enfilade wrote:

Thanks for the wellwishes. *Luv u guyz!

And we luvz u 2

Get this checked out!

As for too young for the menopause- I used to know someone who had
her's start at the age of 32 but she had previously had an eating
disorder, which may have caused it. One of our receptionists at work
had it in her late 30's as did her mother before her

Anyway get this checked out

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:58:10 +0000, bastXXXette wrote:

Sharon & Smudgie wrote:

My gran had very similar symptoms to these. I thought she was
heading for/had a minor stroke. Called out doctor and he diagnosed a
urine infection. A course of anti biotics and she was as right as
rain.

Is this a factor with young people, though?

Older people are probably more prone to such results, but it seems likely
to me that it could happen in someone younger as well. The brain is
dependent upon the rest of the body to supply nutrition and oxygen, deal
with waste products, and the like. If your blood chemistry gets too far
out of line, it makes sense that the brain wouldn't function correctly.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

On Jul 20, 8:05*am, "John F. Eldredge" wrote:
. *The brain is
dependent upon the rest of the body to supply nutrition and oxygen, deal
with waste products, and the like. *If your blood chemistry gets too far
out of line, it makes sense that the brain wouldn't function correctly.

Reminds me of the old joke that you should never tell your manager

"The organs of the body have a meeting to decide which one of them
should be in charge overall

The brain says "Well as I already control everything it should be me"

The heart says "But I keep everyone else alive so it should be me"

The eyes say: "But without me you would blunder into all sorts of
danger so it should be me"

And at this point the a**hole says "But I should be in charge"

So the brain, eyes and heart laugh so much at this idea that the
a**hole, due to hurt feelings, closes and refuses to work until the
rest of the body apologises

Within a few days, the brain is clouded, the eyes crossed and the
heart heavy so they surrender and make the a**hole the boss

Which proves:-

"You don;t need brains, heart or vision to be a boss, you just need to
be an a**hole"

Telling your boss that joke is a definite CLM!

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Enfilade wrote:
Folks, this isn't sleep deprivation nor is it short term. I've been
having those symptoms for over a year now, including times when I was
regularly getting 10 hours of sleep a night (or more). I have been
having those symptoms when I have been waiting to hear back from a job
application while collecting EI (ie, not working, not applying for
work, and not worrying about income). I have rarely had a less
stressful time in my life, with no work, no school and no significant
worries, yet the symptoms were still there. The only difference was,
no one cares if I can't figure out an old Transformer, forget the
names of My Little Ponies, or lose a book and need to wait a couple
weeks until Dylan stumbles across it. And I had DP around to keep me
"straight" and double-check everything. Now, if I'm mixing things up,
forgetting my address and not seeing things right, it matters.
snip

Purrs for you Fil - to get this sorted out ASAP. I imagine that this
must be really upsetting.

Susan M
Otis and Chester