Explain Cog Fog?

[Tahiri_Veila]

When you guys say you are having cog fog is it just that you can't think clearly or what?

I am wondering because I have noticed that I cannot multitask as much as I used too.  I also sometimes struggle finding the word I need to say.  I forget things a lot easier and have to be reminded.  I am only 21 so this is not likely old age, but I am a little curious what you mean by Cog fog.  Sorry, I am sure this has been explained, but please make it more clear.  I am just trying to make sure I seperated symptoms from normal, which is getting very hard as symptoms are beginning to be normal.  What was life like before this? My husband keeps teasing me that he doesn't believe me when I tell him I grew up and was hardly ever sick.  He says I feel awful so much that he has a hard time believing it.  

Also does anyone know of MS mimics that cause the following, but would have a clean MRI:
Tingling sensation in legs, back, arms and hands
Fatigue
Dizziness
Burning sensation in back and legs.
Weakness
Severe Joint pain (especially hands)

These are just a few of my symptoms, but my neuro has not called me for over a month and I think I am going to go to my family doctor next because the neuro and the gp seem to have given up.
  Tahiri

[Tahiri_Veila]

Yes I have had one of my cervical and thoracic spine two years ago, my neuro will not do a new one now because my brain MRI was clean.

Wonko
Yes and no.  I still have some symptoms that have stayed, so I am looking into mimics because my neuro won't even talk to me(he never calls back). I want to check the mimics.  I know I have been tested for lupus, but it could be a false negative(Lupus runs in the family).  I know that my GP tested for fibromyalgia and I think it was negative.

Okay well the pain in my hands that I get.  I agree it is hard to describe.  It hurts worst when I am typing of pipetting.  Doing the little things that need accuracy or dexterity.  They would burn, ache and just plain hurt all over.  The more I used them the more they hurt.  It became difficult to make a fist because my fingers hurt so much.  I could easily straighten my hands, but curling them made it worse.  If you have this I found that biofreeze gives temporary relief (TEMPORARY). I really didn't find anything that completely got rid of it.  I say joints because it felt like my joints were swollen and kind of like an arthritis feeling if that makes sense. After my hands it hit my elbow, knees, and hip. It was alway's worst in my hands.

Hope this helps,
  Tahiri

[wonko]

I think fibromyalgia has a lot of those symptoms in common.  It does not appear on MRI, and though there are some exams to narrow it down involving pain trigger points, overall I think it is difficult to diagnose.  

Lyme's can show up on MRI, but I think it too has a lot of those symptoms, and I think there are different blood tests for it with different levels of accuracy.

I know almost nothing about Lupus, but I think at least some of your symptoms could match with that, though I am not sure if it shows up on MRI or not.  I do know certain rashes are associated with Lupus.  

I think I've seen some of your posts before and that you have been through at least some testing and MRIs.  I hope you have your own copies of the disks or films and the reports so you have them for any future comparison.
  
Are your symptoms getting worse again?  I thought I last read that you were feeling a little better, and hope you still are!

I am curious (I'm without a diagnosis, by the way) about your hands.  Can you say more about how they feel?  After my first episode of symptoms in Jan, my right thumb got stiff in a funny way, making it difficult to grip.  I thought it was a coincidence, not related to my other symptoms.  Fast forward 6 moths, and now that feeling spread to all of my fingers, and on both hands.  It's not really in the joints for me, but I have a really hard time describing it.  If I try to do something dexterous, my hands quickly tingle/burn/hurt.  But this underlying stiffness is always there.

Thanks, and hope you're holding up well.

[6-paq]

Forgive me if you already posted this (this board is so active), but did you have an MRI of your cervical spine and thorasic spine as well?

[santana8]

I am not DX with MS for now, but rather I am stuck between ADEM and MS. ADEM is a monophasic (One Time) illness where myelin is attacked in the brain and or spinal cord. The only differece is that ADEM is usually a one time event!  People who have ADEM are usually left with residual nerve damage of varying degrees.

No matter which Dx it ends up prooving to be, they both do the same kind of damage. I have had quite a bit of cognitive dysfunction( Cog Fog), since my attack in April 2006. The thing that I notice the most is that my thinking skills are not as sharp as they were before. I sometimes have to concentrate way too hard to keep my train of thought.

Also, multitasking has been affected with me. I used to be so good at doing a lot of things at one time, and as a mother of three boys this is almost a requirement. But after the attack, I had to slow down on a lot of things.

For me when it happens and is at it's worst is when I am pressured to put my attention in too many different areas at once. The more pressure, the more  Cog Fog I experience. It feels like my thinking slows way down and sometimes I feel like it is frozen for a few min. Like I cannot think straight at all.

Concentration, memory( especially short term) figuring money, making plans, organization is a big problem now. This is especially hard for me because I used to be a very organized person, almost too organized. It kind of feels like my thoughts are jumping all over the place and it is really hard to focus.

Usually the only thing that helps this is to stop what I am doing, go into a quiet  place and be still until it passes. I have it more when out in public than when I am home. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am stupid now, but I know that I am not, because if I was I wouldn't have been able to learn the vast amount of medical knowledge that I have learned and retained over the past two years.

It is a hard thing to deal with, especially when your thinking was always sharp before! But taking some of the pressure off of yourself, especially when these moments happen, will actually help relieve the intensity of the dysfunction, or at least that is  what has worked for me.

~Santana~