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

[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