General Chat

my son had Group B menigitis at birth (he wasnt expected ti live) and since the age of 11 has had epilepsy he suffers from memory loss the menigitis causes short term memory loss plus prospective memory loss the epilepsy cause memory loss and the drugs used to control it cause memory loss he has nocturnal epilepsy so he is able to drive and passed both parts of his test at 17 yrs old....no memory loss there...lol he is of average intelligence which is good because school was a constant problem because he often forgot what he'd been taught and also forgot homework...and no it wasn't a ploy by him to get away with it...lol we are proud of how he copes with life lou

Norah, My other half suffered from meningitis when he was younger which has left him with epilepsy and learning difficulties. One of his problems is the concept of time, if you ask him about something that happened yesterday, he will say it happened weeks ago. If you say to him 'do you want a cuppa?' he will say that he has only just had one when it has been a couple of hours. Sue

Been thinking about it, and will definitely ride my "cycle" to Safeway, buy up all the Marmite I can find, come home and prepare the dinner (no salt, no broccoli, no chickpeas, no bread, no pizza), will refrain from using the computer and thus ensure my "limpatic system" is unimpaired and then,.... and then.............I forget what I was going to do! Jaqui

Jacqui, LoL

Morfydd - probably my fault by not explaining that Dr Ali was answering the query put by a FEMALE reader! Hence, the reference to the female cycle. I presume he was talking about the bodily female cycle, and not the "lack of cross-bar cycle" that ladies ride (lol) Although, from his potty response, perhaps he was! Jacqui

I'm back, prepared dinner, so can spend a few mins on here. So what this doctor means then, is my husband's memory loss has something to do with my cycle, because he doesn't drink beer, he drinks wine, cut down on salt after stroke, hates marmite, etc, etc, just something to fill up a page in the paper I reckon. My husband had a problem for a long while with time, was quite shocked when I was talking to a social worker and stated he'd had his stroke 7 months previously, he thought it was only weeks. M.

William - dont know about Scouseland but the buggers are HUGE in Nottingham, and I'm just off to Safeway to buy up their entire consignment of Marmite! Jacqui

Don't know Denise - but he probably gets paid loads to write it (His name is Dr Ali by the way!!) One interesting piece says with regard to stress in the neck "when you are stressed, the neck muscles tenses. Physical stress, for instance sitting for hours at a computer (!), driving long distances or insomnia, can have the same effect. This can cause the circulation of CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) and blood to slow down, particularly the supply that flows through the vetebral arteries. If this happens, the limbic system suffers from "power failure" as its fuel fails to get through. (Just what the limbic system is I don't know) There you are then girl - it's sitting at the computer what does it - now, what were we talking about? Is it time for a marmite sandwich? Love - Jacqui

Oops sorry about that, didnt even notice after reading it a couple of times! I'm crying laughing LOL. I will change it though.

Hello Denise and to your 'hubby' My sister has short term memory loss, she knows it and finds it so frustrating. It is literally a case of 'in one ear and out the other' It's wonderful for me, I can tell her all my secrets and she promptly forgets them!!! She had been 'absent-minded' for some time, and then collapsed with a urininary infection, was taken to hospital, whereupon she announced 'she didn't like this pub and wanted to go home' She is constantly cheerful and I love her to bits. The intriguing thing to me and I wonder if anyone else has come across it - Betty will perhaps visit me, and after being here for just a day, she thinks that she has been here 2-3 weeks.(Perhaps I just make it seem that long!!! lol) It seems as if 'time' is compressed for her. In the evening of a day that she has been out, that day out seems to have happened some time previously. I would love to be able to understand it - the nearest I can think of is that the brain cells that would normally measure time for her have died. Anyone else got any ideas? Norah

Hi Denise I've noticed my short term memory has got worse since I had my kids. They were both ceasarians so I don't know if that has anything to do with it or if it's just that I have so much to remember. The other day I ran a bath full of cold water. I shouted my hubby to come up to the bathroom and told him there must be something wrong with the boiler cos the water was cold. We tested the taps in the sink and they were fine. He put the taps on in the bath again and told me they were fine. After a very heated debate it turned out that somebody - nobody's owning up - had switched the H and the C over on the taps. There's no wonder I'm losing the plot! Jeanette ps. He calls me Audrey Roberts and I call him Richard!

Dear Jacqui, What on earth is that fella wafflerling on about? Coffee.....one a day salt.......very reduced because of hubbies high blood pressure. bread....one slice a day, if that. Marmite....dont eat it. pizza.....probably once a month. pasta......ooooh about twice a week beer....ughs,never. fizzy water....no radishes.......no chickpeas.....no kidney beans...no chickpeas......no broccoli....once a week cauliflower.....once a week asparagus......no So, what is this nutter trying to tell me? Never heard such a lot of twaddle in my life. He got paid for that.

Denise - just been out to get the sunday paper - Mail on Sunday - and guess what? there is an article in there "Why am I losing my short-term memory? The reply is by "Britain's top integrated health expert" (whatever that is!) If you have time before the Christening nip off and get a copy - would precis it for you on here but it's too long and besides I cannot fully understand it - lol Something to do with the female cycle - the answers seem to be reduce stress (easier said than done!), avoid coffee and excess salt - give up yeast products such as bread (if only I could) Marmite (but that keeps the mosquitos away - I read that yesterday!), pizza, pasta and beer (so what will I live on?) avoid fizzy water, radishes, chickpeas (?), kidney beans, broccoli stalks, cauliflower and asparagus (as these all increase the production of gas - wind, I presume!). If you can remember all that girl, you're a better woman than me and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with your memory. I might consider taking this expert's advice, as fortunately he did not mention giving up chips! All the best - Jacqui

Hi William, Welcome to the ??????? club, if I could remember its name.

Hi Morfydd, You were right in your first reply, I think I will keep in touch, the more you talk about your husbands problem the more I connect. I cannot sleep for quite a few nights in a row, my brain goes fifty to the dozen as soon as close my eyes. Its only after a few days of sleepless nights that I get a really good nights sleep. Denise

Dear Jo in Yarm, In your reply to Morfydd you certainly proved you have a bad memory when you cannot spell the word SHIFT. I have never laughed so much in my life. Good for you. Denise

My husband used to forget where he was going too and would get on any bus, that's better, thankfully. One thing that still bothers him, when he goes to bed, he says, it's like his brain comes alive and he has loads of thoughts whizzing round his head, again worse if his memory has been bad for a few days. It's a vicious circle really, because he then gets more tired and memory gets worse. Another thing now though, I can leave him to cook on his own more, he used to have habit of putting gas on, forgetting and walking off. M.

Dear ,dear friends who have replied, At last he is having a laugh at SOME of things you have written. I think he feels alone, and like all men tries to carry the burden alone. Getting back to a lighter note,(sorry cann't remember which friend it is), the mobile phone----mine are 'post it' stuck on the the front door or any door that needs to be, cupboards doors are full of them. Best of it is, I dont need a 'post it' to remind me to switch on my computer..lol Denise

Morfyd, I used to still forget! The list I had I used to cross things out as it went along, sometimes I would forget to cross it off or cross too many things off!! My husband used to work SHIFTS (thats better!) but he had to go on days to try and keep a routine for me. I'm not as bad as I used to be still have bad weeks. I cant go out on my own incase I get "lost" and I also lost my sense of perception. So I cant tell how fast traffic is going etc and get in a muddle when there are lots of things happening around me. The strangest thing I remember all sorts of strange things that know one else can and often "things" come to me in my sleep! I do agree it's better to laugh at it but it is hard to start to do that.

Jo, we set alarms on my husband's mobile to remind him to do things, only thing is he turns off the alarm and still forgets to do what he was supposed to. He also developed different names for things, we have just continued using those 'funny' names, part of the learning to laugh at it process. It's not an easy path to tread for sufferer or family, but it gets easier when you stop feeling so stressed about it. M.