Have any of you experienced temporary amnesia?

[maxthecat43]

I have had several very short episodes of near complete memory loss.  Once, when I was still allowed to drive, I was on my way home from Costco.  This trip is very familiar normally, and only takes about 10 minutes, even in heavy traffic.  I was on the freeway, and suddenly I had no idea where I was.  I knew that I should know, but I had no idea.  It passed in a minute or less, but it bothered me alot.

Another episode:  I remember leaving my apartment complex, but I suddenly found myself about a mile down the road, and in the oncoming traffic lane.  I thank God that no one was there, I I could have really hurt someone.  

My sister tells me that she has spoken to me, when she was certain something was wrong- and on those particular occasions, I don't recall ever speaking with her.

I don't drive anymore, so there is no need to worry about your safety on the road (at least from me); but I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

Thanks,
Tammy

[hab149]

blood sugar problems can cause confusion and memory lapse and a sense of disorientation.  keep a protein bar on you at all times, and see if a few bites help.  dehydration can also cause confusion.  coffe is dehydrating !

[anon07072023]

I brought just about this exact same thing up to my neuro when I went to see her maybe about a week and a half ago.  She acted like it was nothing and just chalked it up to typical MS symptoms.  Then she did a quick one page test on me and if I passed, it meant that my symptoms weren't related to Dementia / Alzheimer's.  Well, I passed.

Sometimes, I have complete memory loss, too, and I think it's probably seizure activity. And, like you, I can be 4 min away from my house on the way to work and then all of a sudden I'm confused about where I'm going, where I'm at, and how to get to wherever I'm going.  

And I have complete loss of memory here in there of I'm guessing about 5 minutes or so where to this day I don't remember what I did.  I was in one place then probably a few minutes went by, then when I "came to" I was in another place doing something else.  

[maxthecat43]

Thanks Buffy.  I will look into that.  I have never even heard of it before...

Tammy

[Buffy1970]

Hi there.  I don't know if I can be of any help b/c I'm not diagnosed with MS.  It is a possibility...

Check into Jamais vue.  I have had episodes where I was lost in familiar places too to different degrees - from not understanding that I was standing in a parking garage to feeling "lost" on familiar streets like you.  It lasted from April or 2009 until sometime in late summer 2010.  I still lose time and all three eeg's did not catch a siezure.  I give no sign of an episode ubt when it happens whatever was there is gone no matter what.  I have been told exactly what was said in a conversation but nothing brings even the slightest recall.

I have what is most likely asym bone marrow in right petreous but neuro at Mayo said this is an area that may cause this sort of memory issue.  You may have a lesion there?  I also developed trouble understanding things I read and sometimes couldn't understand English... only language I speak.  Everything was fairly short-term but went on for months.  I am still losing periods of time.

If you are like me, you are likely having episodes that you don't know about w/o someone or something to make it stand out to you.  Be careful.

Good luck.  Wish I had answers to share.  I am diagnosed with fibromyalgia and "unknown cause" of neurological symptoms.

[maxthecat43]

I'm not sure if it has happened before.  Certainly not that dramatically.  I will see my neuro again at the beginning of May- at least I'm not on the road anymore.  

It's funny.  At every appt, he asks me how I got there!

Tammy

[supermum_ms]

Morning Tammy,

I think your probably right that they wern't the same thing, this incident does to me sound more like a seizure "I blanked out, and found myself a mile or so down the road, and in the oncoming lane of traffic.  If I still had my hands on the wheel, and my foot on the gas, the car would keep going for a while until I either "came to" or crashed." I didn't realise it went that far, i've totally miss understood what happened, i thought you'd driven the wrong way down the freeway because you were confused.

SHeesh, this type of incident really really really is something that needs investigating by your neuro. Crickey, I'm glad your not driving, talk about being bl@@dy lucky that you didn't crash!

Have you passed out before?

HUGS............JJ  

[maxthecat43]

After reading some of the posts, I believe the two incidents I described were not the same thing.  I think when I didn't know where I was, it was probably not a seizure.  However, it may have been a seizure when I blanked out, and found myself a mile or so down the road, and in the oncoming lane of traffic.  If I still had my hands on the wheel, and my foot on the gas, the car would keep going for a while until I either "came to" or crashed.

I'm still not sure about the cause of the time I was "lost?" on my way home.

Sorry about the confusion:  I am fairly confused about it all myself.  All I know is that these things happened- not too certain about what they are (or) why they happened.

Tammy

[supermum_ms]

Ok dont shoot me or anything but i'm sort of a little confused, ok i'm still on my first cup of coffee lol but how does temperarily not knowing where you are and otherwise being still fully functioning, relate to possible seizure activity?

I would of thought, for this type of thing that Tammy has described to be seizure related, the person would also have forgotten other things too, not just specifically one thing. I'm basically thinking that a person having a seizure, even a really very small partial seizure, would probably blank out at least on other related things as well eg. like how to drive, that they are driving, what to do with the round thing, foot needs to be on the peddle thingy, staying between the lines etc

I really thought that this type of issue is related to the more common cognitive dysfunctions seen in MS, specifically 'Information processing' and the delayed speed. Basically the brain can't take in all the information its getting at once (auditory, sensory, visual spacial, abstract) and then prioritise all the information fast enough to function normally. Delayed processing speed will also have a negative affect with abstract conceptulisation, multi tasking, attention, memory etc.

I wont bore you with everything but when the brain is being overloaded with all these forms of information, as what can happen whilst driving with MS, the brain prioritises or hyper focuses on the important and temperarily ignores things less important, eg visual clues of where you are.

So am i wrong thinking this or what? lol wont be the first time :0)

Cheers............JJ

  

      

[maxthecat43]

Thanks, I will.  I see him again in the first week of May.  I think they must be seizures too, but if so- they are fairly small.  

Tammy

[rendean]

I have had several of these episodes and my neuros both think I am having seizures, most likely absence seizures. My EEG is scheduled in 2 weeks I believe (shot term memory..sorry :0)

You are wise not to drive although I don't drive anymore , it is one of my biggest hurdles so far. I feel like I could drive that mile to the grocery store, but what if one the episodes happens and I hurt someone.

I would report these episodes and see if your neuro wants any further work-ups.

Feel better,
Ren

[supermum_ms]

Hey tammy,

I wouldn't say its temperary amnesia either, technically i dont think it even falls into the amnesia box because its selective or specific and i'm not sure that amnesia usually works that way. We've talked about this type of thing a lot on the forum, cognitive issues didn't use to be acknowledged as a sx of MS, thought to be rare so when patients would report cognitive issues dr's denied it was related to MS, fatigue or depression was usually blamed but a lot has changed since research of cognitive issues in MS started coming out, mild cognitive dysfunction is upto 65% in pwMS.

[http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/cognitivedysfunction.html]

Total lesion load was found to be correlated with level of cognitive dysfunction but not with lesions in specific brain areas. This is not surprising given the complexity and plasticity of the human brain.

Some of the specific cognitive deficits observed in people with MS are:

Memory Dysfunction:
This is the most commonly reported cognitive dysfunction in MS and occurs in 20 to 44% of people with MS. The type of memory deficit most often reported is free recall of recently learned material. Free recall is the ability to get to a memory instantly - MS rarely seems to affect a person's ability to get items into the memory banks - just our ability to get it out "right now". What also does not appear to be compromised very often is a person's ability to understand and learn new concepts nor the speed at which they do so.

Verbal fluency:
Verbal fluency is affected in some people with MS whereas verbal comprehension appears undamaged. Verbal fluency deficits usually take the form of slowed free recall of words that describe concepts and less often words that name objects.

Cognitive Fatigue:
On average, people with MS tire more quickly during psychological tests and often start off matching control subjects but their performance tails off as the test progresses.

Impaired Planning Skills:
One study reported that 40% of people with MS are less able to plan things than healthy controls. This study was criticised because it was a timed test and that the people with MS all had the Secondary Progressive form of the disease.

These findings are all drawn from the results of psychometric tests - some of the problems cognitive dysfunction causes in a person's everyday life include forgetting:

- Whether they have taken a medication
- Some of the things that they have to do on a particular day
- What they went into a room to get
- To shut the windows when they leave the house
- A word that they know very well
- To take a new route on a particular journey rather than follow the usual route

Personally the most telling cognitive sx for me was loost nouns, for about a month or so i was redused to describing everything. lol i couldn't even recall our daughters name so described her as the blonde girl lol i can't remember if i've ever not known where i am but i have sat in the car totally not knowing where the key goes, did you know the car doesn't start if you stick the key in the CD player lol

The thing to remember is that although this type of cognitive issue is common for pwMS, there are actually many many things that can cause this also, depression probably is the most common one but MS, age, meds, vitamin D etc etc etc are possibilities too so MS may not necessarily be causing it, probably is but still it isn't always.

Rule of thumb, dont freak out when ever you suddenly loose the plot, it doesn't help and usually if you just give your self a little time, it will all fall into place again.

Cheers...........JJ

[maxthecat43]

Thanks Jen.  I think that makes sense too.  I remember an incident in a grocery store, where I thought I was having a kind of seizure.  

Tammy

[jensequitur]

Actually, yes, but I wouldn't term your experiences temporary amnesia.  

I had a real problem with short-term memory.  I would lose parts of a day, but sometimes it would still make it into my long-term memory.  My theory is that wherever the memory was, it got filed properly, but I couldn't access it in short-term memory.  But I don't remember any sort of 'lost time' phenomenon.

It's possible that you had some seizure activity.  An absence seizure might have made you lose time.  That would explain why you were in the incoming lane!

At any rate, I would stay away from the wheel, and you'll be fine.

I think many more people with MS have seizure activity or abnormal myoclonus, but don't report it.  Probably because they don't realize it's abnormal!  You have to have somebody else there with you to notice what's going on.