Memory loss please advise

Hi
I hope and pray for good health for everyone on here, it has been a while since I wrote on here, when I did write a year or so ago I spoke with some wonderful people.
At this moment in life I am having some overwhelming concerns about my short term memory issues and a little on my long term memory , I don’t know if this is as a consequence of the gamma knife surgery I had on the brain for my avm about 2-3yrs ago, I have been told I no longer have an avm thank god.

Now for memory issues I’m facing

I Can’t hold a conversation as conversations are 90% of the past.

What I talk about today 60% will be lost by tomorrow

I feel stupid, inadequate not relevant and a liar

I can’t explain to people as they don’t understand or believe how I can remember some stuff and not other stuff.

I am having difficulty in my relationships wife, parents, brothers sisters and rest of family and friends inevitably it is affecting my work life as I am repeatedly asking about things that have been explained to me already this is where I feel stupid.

I am at a loss as to where to go with my life and who to turn to, hence the reason I am writing about it on here, I don’t want my nearest and dearest to be affected because of my inabilities and don’t blame them the slightest in fact I’m making life hard and miserable for everyone around me especially my wife whom I love dearly, she tries her best to help but at times it feels like she doesn’t understand again she is not to blame as what is the norm to her I forget and ends up in an argument I do know one thing I never give up and will continue to the best of my ability to cope with it.

I have been writing reminders in my phone among other things for the past year but the reminders are less effective as I cannot write the whole conversation which is also not practical.

If someone on here can relate to or can advise on anything that might help me, please let me know

Many thanks

Wahid,

Hi. It’s good to hear from you and I hope you are otherwise doing well.

I’ve got one main thought and a side thought, which I hope might help. Let’s see.

I think it would be a good thing for you to talk with a neurologist about this trouble.

My understanding of the role of neurologists is to study the brain, its functions, and how it impacts a patient. I have a favourite book, called The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by the late Dr Oliver Sacks an eminent neurologist. In the book, he relates a number of stories about his patients with different neurological troubles and the role he took then was to talk to his patients about ways that they might cope with their trouble. As you say, writing things down is one method; maybe using the voice recorder (rather than trying to type stuff in) might help you with conversations. I would hope a neurologist would have a list of methods for coping with a number of the deficits, excesses and oddities of the brain.

I completely understand how difficult a situation you find yourself in. I don’t know if there is a way out or any medication that might improve anything or tools/methods to use to manage your specific trouble but I would start by asking to see a neurologist.

Hope this helps,

Richard

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Sorry to hear, definetly not a great issue by any means

Last time I was in ER, the RN from Barrow asked me exactly what issues was I having - I told her & so on. . . So far, memory has not been an issue for me post my embolization. But, she said memory loss is a common issue for folk who had AVM procedures.

Sounds like you have a bit of stress also. Stress makes everything worse - But, I totally agree - have a word with a neurologist. Just to get their professional opinion

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Hi pal
Thanks as always, your advice is always appreciated.
I have been In touch with my consultant and arranged an appointment to see him sometime in June.

Note, I’m saying neurologist rather than neurosurgeon… :wink:

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Hi pal
It seems as though I’m between a rock and a hard place when it comes to stress, when I’m at work or with family people in office or home are talking about something that happened the day before I’m struggling with answering them which leads to stress leading to me feeling stupid even though I managed so many people at work.
Iv booked in with my neurologist and discuss everything with him, iv already started making some notes so if there are any questions you could advise on asking then please let me know. Thanks

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I think the first thing is to know you’re not stupid. You’ve got an impairment that makes life 10 times more difficult than for other people.

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This is the kind of attitude I get from people, and boy does it suck - and, my symptoms so far have been fairly manageable

I don’t even bother anymore(more like, try my best not to). . . How did you miss that, how did you not know or forgot that, we were just talking about it - blah blah. . . Whatever, they’re not the ones living with brain damage

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