Embarassing Moments from og Fog

[Quixotic1]

Okay, this is an important question, because some people are too embarrassed to talk about it.

What is (are) the most embarassing things that have happened to you because of not being able to think clearly or thinking too slow?

Quix

[MrsPriz]

I could tell about so many things over the last year...  but the past few months have been the worst.  
This past Tuesday my 7 year old daughter woke me up.  I told her Mommy wanted to sleep in a bit.  She said but Mom I will be late for school!  I told her she didnt have school on Saturday.  She said Mom..  it's Tuesday.  I think I argued with her for  2 or 3 minutes before I woke up enough to realize it was indeed Tuesday.  Poor thing was almost in tears.  I told her Mommy was just having a dream that it was Saturday.  Thankfully I had enough time to get her to school and I was only a few minutes late for work.
Work...  ugh.  My boss is aware something is going on, but I have not told her my dx.  I am afraid they will find a way to get rid of me.  I can't imagine what it would be like to try and learn a new job right now.  I have a co-worker who does know what is going on - she is very kind to read over emails I write before I send them to make sure they make sense.  I am constantly attaching incorrect files and even ended an email with a hug {{{}}} to the CFO!  Let's not even get into the typos.  Thank god for spell check!
I know my cog fog (love that term) is really bad when my 73 year old Mother with alzheimer's makes more sense than I do...  and *I* am supposed to be the one assisting Her!
Recently mixed up my daughters middle names...  on a form at the pediatricians.
Called my neuro and asked to speak to my rheumy.
Asked my husband to add Wallpaper to the grocery list.  Meant Watermelon.
Never go to a store for more than 2 items without a list.
I have even taking to making a note of where I am going and putting it on the dash of the car.  Can't tell you how many times I have been driving and totaly forgotten where I was going.
Hate it for all of us..  but glad to see I am not alone!
Debbi  (oh and Love You all!)  I have done that one also.  *sigh*

[doublevision1]

This never happened to me....until today that is.  

My husband brought home ice cream sundaes, and I was going on and on about how much I love ice cream and couldn't live without it, and wouldn't it be nice if we lived in Italy where they go out for a stroll and a gelato every night after dinner.

I said 'gelato' a few times in the conversation and then *poof* the word disappeared.  For the life of me I could not recall the word that I had just said, like 5 seconds earlier.  OK  so it's not the most common word, but I was the one who brought it up in the first place!  I think my husband thought I was pulling his leg.  I kept asking him to tell me the word for Italian ice cream and he wouldn't!  I had to look it up and I swear, I never would have remembered  it was 'gelato'.  All of a sudden it just made no sense to me, it was like I had never heard it before.

I have no idea if it's the MS and I know I shouldn't necessarily automatically blame everything on MS, but after reading all of the above I really do wonder!

db

[beverlyj]

This is great! I've had so many word loss times I can't count. My new husband is great at reading what I mean to say. Forget trying to remember dates of any kind. The worse bout of forgetfulness is when I showed up for my divorce hearing....a day late. Try explaining that to a judge :)

[nette573]

My last mix up with words was one day in town my husband driving and I was going to tell him to slow down and I was saying be still - be still and he said what are you saying.  Here lately I will be in a converstion with my mom and  cant remember what I was talking about!    Drives me crazy!!!!!  Lynette

[jensequitur]

I hear good things about Aricept, which is a drug for Alzheimer's patients.  I haven't tried anything yet - heck, I'm still trying to get scheduled for a neuro-psych exam.

[jewski]

Thank you all for sharing your stories.  I can relate to 98% of them.  

I do the "i love you" thing at the end of a phone call all the time, and most times I don't even realize I've done it.  My daughter asked me one day after a phone call who I was talking to.  I said I was changing an ortho apt for my other daughter, why did she ask.  She said I thought that was who you were talking to, but why did I say "I love you" as I was hanging up?  I had no idea I'd even said it.

I repeat myself all the time, and foget where I am in a story when retelling it to friends or family.

I too have sat at a stoplight not sure where I was going, or even where I was.  

Tried making the list of things, and then leave the house constantly with the list sitting on the counter.  

I had to go to the post office the other day to mail I quilt I had made for a client.  I had spent a half hour packaging up the quilt and addressing it.  Went out to my car, put the box down, opened the sliding door on my van, proceeded to take out a 12 pack of diet coke I had left on the seat when I went to the grocery earlier in the day.  Closed the door and drove to the post office.  Arrived at the post office at 4:45, opened the sliding door only to find that the box wasn't there.  At that point I didn't have time to drive home and get the box (that was still stiing on the floor of my garage) and get back to the post office before it closed, so I had to go back the next day.  

Has anyone tried ADD meds to help with the brain fog.  I have seen that there are some clinical trial of Ritilan and other ADD meds to see if they help with MS brain fog, but has anyone here ever tried them?

[yorkieville]

Last week, Wednesday, when I was checking out at the receptionists desk at my D.O.'s office, she asked me for my phone #. I didn't know it.  For the life of me, I couldn't think of my cell#. I've been going there once a month for 6 years, and this was someone I had never met before, so I was totally mortified.

Finally, I said, "I've been coming here once a month for 6 years, so you should have it in your computer and I know it's in my file".

Then, last month, I was trying to answer a question, and I didn't know what year this past December was in. I had to stop and think to myself, "Well, this is April of '08, so Dec. would have been '07".

I am really beginning to hate meeting new people.

I got a new washer and dryer last week, and my husband asked me how I liked it, and I said, "It's great, you don't need a brain to use it". He laughed out loud. I explained that all the buttons kind of tell you what to do. You press a button and then it takes you to choosing a cycle and so on.....

Sheila

[jensequitur]

It's really interesting to me how we can get words mixed up in our heads, and use the wrong one for the situation.  Today I was trying to talk about the dining chair, and first I said "Doorknob chair," then "Dinner chair," then finally I got out "Dining chair."  Obviously my brain knew that it started with 'D'  - but I couldn't pull out the right letters in sequence.

I also mix up words when I'm typing - I know that the word contains these letters, but I keep putting them in the wrong order.

When I'm really bad off, I would replace words with others that had some of the same syllables, like "hotel" for "telegram" or "gray" with "green."  

The brain is a very strange place.  Obviously we have complicated ways of storing language and retrieving it.  I've wondered what kind of damage the brain has to receive to mix up words like that.

[jensequitur]

Supervisors like that are a treasure... although he really should have said something about it.

[KarenZ]

I so enjoyed reading about everyone's brain fog....not because you have brain frog but because I can relate to your brain fog! I've experienced it all. Leaving the stove on is the most frightening and my husband religiously checks after me to make sure I don't burn the house down. Another thing that frightens me is not remembering anything about a movie we went to see. I'll tell friends I went to the movies and they'll ask what did you see. Not only can I not remember the name of the movie, I don't remember the movie at all. I know I was there watching a movie, but.......that really scares me because I think I''m going to have dementia. In general I forget everything... words, names, appointments, people, events, if I ate, what I ate, what I said, what you said, and on and on. My family is used to it, but it is always embarrassing when it involves people I don't know well. I've had some strange telephone moments I could tell you about..if I remembered them!!!!  

When I was working I could no longer keep my concentration in order to do my work which was suffering as a result. One day my supervisor (who was an angel) said, I might not have told you so it's my fault, but I needed this report (that I wasn't able to get together to finish) ASAP. He was so willing to accept the blame for something that was my fault or brain fog fault. It was the first time that I told anybody other than family that something was not right with me. Afterwards he did tell me that he thought I had not been myself for a while and he didn't know if he should say anything to me about it.

[willowwoman7]

It must have been a freudian slip or something. Last night I wrote about leaving the stove on and tonight after dinner, I was talking to my cousin and my husband yelled out, Honey, you left the burner on. My family and I laughingly call thhe word slips, MS moments to neutralize my frustrations. They are getting good at figuring out what I mean when I say, "You know, the whoseywhatsey" and they say what it is and I say, "Yeah, that thing". The entire cog fog thing embarrasses me because I used to be a freelance photojournalist. I remembered a really embarrassing one. Around Christmas time, I wanted to make my husband lasagne. I'm Italian, for criminy sakes, and I forgot how to put it together. I had to call my brother (who I adore) and he walked me through it. But you know what? Quix had the right idea. If we are able to joke about our foggy croaks, it makes it much easier to live with. Thanks Quix for this great topic.

[Fluffysmom]

Well, I was filling out a form last week to get some of my medical information, and on the line where it said City, State, Zip  I wrote my last name.

I was looking at a picture of a swimming pool that a friend was showing me, and I said "I like the way it has those water slides for kids that look like elephants, or are they dolphins?  Oh, they're whales."

I've done a lot of the filling in the wrong word in an otherwise fine sentence.

Kathy

[wingnut19]

So many of the above experiences I have had over the past year!  Thanks for the laughs....

I especially loved the 'wrong phrasing' things....because I do that ALL the time!  
For example, the other night I made my son and I a nice cup of hot chocolate....just before bringing it out of the kitchen, I asked him, "Jeremy, would you like MUSHROOMS in your hot chocolate?"  (obviously, I wanted to say marshmallows)..
He laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair....

Jens.....I do what you said all the time....wanting to use one phrase, yet another comes out.....
I also had a conversation with my Mom a couple of weeks ago...we were talking about the hassles of owning your own home.....She couldn't maintain her yard, shovel snow, etc...So I told her to just hire a "show snoveler"!!    We both laughed our a**es off!
You just have to laugh at it, don't you?  

Thanks again for the chuckles....It's nice to know I'm not the only one.....

Tammy

[jensequitur]

I've always called that store Blood Bath and Beyond... or Bed, Bath, and Beyond the Grave is good too.

[dannig]

Yes, Did you call it Bad Breath and Beyond  actually in a cog fog
Once I was at the mall and told my friend I wanted to go to Bath and Booby Works!

[Quixotic1]

ROFLOL!!!

These are all too painful and funny.

Do you mean the store Bad Breath and Beyond?

Q

[dannig]

OMG some of these stories are too funny.

I've had so many moments like these-my husband and I usually get some really good laughs out of some of the things I say or do.  Most commonly I combine words.

Last week I had to go to the bathroom so bad-in my head I was thinking, "If I don't go to the bathroom soon I'm going to burst"  But what came out of my mouth was, "I have to go to the birth room."  Then I was thinking of buying a new shower curtain and I said, "I'm going to get a new shurtain"  Tha sad part is-I talk like this so much my husband knows what I means.

I also stop at green lights or yellow blinking lights while driving-I just sit there in my car-don't know what I'm waiting for the lights already green.  Usually someone beeps or I see them waving their arms like a maniac.  I've even been headed home and completely turned down the wrong room.

Oh this one is really funny-I was at the store BB&B had to go to the bathroom really bad so I didn't see the urinals on the wall and while washing my hands afterwards a man came in lookat at me strange and proceeded to the stall(sp?) I said, "excuse me I think you have entered the wrong bathroom"  He said , "No I don't think so"  I opened the door and saw "MEN"  then looked back in and saw the urinals.

[jensequitur]

Hah!  Which category do you want to talk about?  Using the wrong word?  Or totally forgetting a person's name, or calling them by the wrong name?  Or not even RECOGNIZING the person when they're standing in front of me?

I think the funniest is when I use the wrong phrase for the situation.  Like I was trying to tell my honey to "get rid of that" (throw out something nasty in the fridge,) and said instead "Get the h*** out."  He looked at me oddly, and then I realized what I had said!  Or when I told him we needed to throw the towel away, when actually I meant throw the towel in the wash.

Cog fog when you're driving isn't so funny.  Yesterday I had to drive most of the way back from Houston to Fort Worth, which is a four hour trip.  My honey wasn't feeling good, so he was snoozing in the passenger seat - otherwise I would never have taken the wheel.  When the road wasn't too crowded, it was okay.  But after two hours, I had to stop down and have him drive for a while, because I was just making too many errors.  Judgement errors, errors in concentration - I felt like I needed to slap myself in the face to wake up.  Unfortunately he started feeling badly again, and so I had to take the wheel for the rest of the trip.  Which ended up being five hours because I missed a turn!  Argh!

[AMO]

thanks for the laughs everyone! keeps the O2 flowing  HA!


I too have ended many phone  calls with respeeetionists, mechanics and insurance agents with 'i love you' .... hope i made their day.

on eof the scarey leaving stove on storties....
i make my humming bird necctar.... nice spring day, sons h.s. graduation decided to make it so it would be cooled for when we get home. Welll four hours later we returned home from the ceremonie and a party to finnd smke billowing out the windows! I was yelling 'who left something cooking???'  
Funny thing is, that was the thirdd pan i ruined with nectar ,grrr.
I am amazed my neighbors have neever called the fire dept on me , HA! LOL

I   once left the house for six hours with potatoes boiling, Beside smoking...boy those stunk!

But the best was we had a  broken garage dorr opener. The repair guys were fixing it,  i put on water  in a Revierware stainless tea kettle (gas stove) After sometime ii thought they must be soldering the garage door from the smell of it. I glanced in the gargae and funny they were gone? hum,

ENtering the kitchen the smell was stronger and I was thinking the workers must have been cooking something??  and whenn i saw the glowing red kettlee on the stove realized  it was what i ssmelled! The plastic handle annd spout cover had long melted  off and were blobs on the stovetop. After a few seconded i realized it was  me not them who put the water on.

one good thing about declining health, I do not cook like I used to, and I don't go out alone, so no fears of burning the house down any more ! HA!

this thread could go on forever huh? keep um coming
amo

[Heather3418]

My "cog-fog," was not funny but I'll share anyway.  I was driving and pulled up to a stop-light.  Within seconds, I couldn't figure out where I was, why everyone was stopped, nor what to do when the light apparently turned green.  The honking of other driver's finally snapped me out of my fog and I realized that when the light turns green, you are suppose to move forward.

Another strange one is standing in front of the mirror and getting ready to put a rubber band in my hair.  I could not for the life of me, figure out what I was suppose to do with that rubber band.  This lasted for several seconds.  At first I was scared, then I laughed.

It was then I realized that the brain is extremely complex and sometimes the simplest of commands, can be lost momentarily in a brain that is hindered by lesions.

The screwed up speech is a story for another day, I suppose.  Gosh I have said some stupid things in my journey through MS.  I don't drink but you sure would think I was a drunk.

Did you all know, that if we are ever stopped for suspected "driving under the influence," that we can actually refuse to take the sobriety test, just based on the fact that we have documented MS?  (Apparently we just tell the officers that we have documented MS and cannot pass the field sobriety test)  If the officers asked me to walk in a straight line or touch my nose with my eyes closed, with my head bent back, you can only imagine how the results would present.  If we are arrested and go before a judge after failing a field sobriety test, that our "drunk driving" case would be dismissed based on having MS.  Now they can make us take the breath test, but most people with MS would flunk the field test.

Heather

[latte224]

The one my kids really laughed at was when I referred to an umbrella as a light bulb.  I'm still trying to figure out how in my brain those two items could be interchangeable.

[csojinmi]

I constantly have what I call my SHOE MYSTERY?  Because of numbness in my feet, and brain fog, unless I am looking at my feet, I can not tell you what shoes I am wearing.
I am always double checking my feet before leaving the house making sure my shoes match.
I am also a nursing student, so studying is a challenge to say the least.

[sllowe]

Up at the podium, reporting on a large project in front of 60+ people trying not to sound like a drunkard!

[MCBCON]

actually, I cannot remember right know.  But, I know there have been many situation and folks having a good laugh.