Cognitive Thinking Deficiency

Posted By Linda Spurlock on July 06, 1997 at 18:28:08:









I recently went through a battery of tests as part of a routine breast
cancer follow-up appointment (five years).  My complaint was a significant
decline in my thinking ability in the past year showing up with short-term
memory loss and inability to resolve simple problems or to recall words.  
I also have severe allergies and tend to correlate my bad thinking days to
allergies, but there is no actual basis for this.  In the past, I was
treated for one year for epilepsy due to an abnormal eeg, however current
physicians question wether I have ever had epilepsy even though they have
never reviewed eeg in question.  As part of my work-up, current eeg was
normal.  The MRI I received was also normal.  As you can imagine, my
concern would be brain metasis of my breast cancer, but since MRI was
normal, is no longer a concern for the docs.  I was given a neuro
psychiatric test which showed significant cognitive thinking loss.  
The doctors were not able to explain this other than to attribute the
poor test results to some form of ADD.  I felt this diagnosis was pulled
out of a hat.  The only kind of follow-up that was suggested was to obtain
another neuropsychiatric test in six months to see if there was further
decline, but did not want to order any other tests at this time.  In fact,
my oncologist seemed indignant when he was reviewing my chart to my
questions. These tests were conducted at a major medical facility known
for diagnostic problems.  Does the fact that I had a "normal" MRI, does
preclude any other tests that could uncover a tumor or other disease
state?  Any comments are welcomed and appreciated.