Memory Loss/Distortion

[Son_Needing_Help]

My mother had her thyroid and a benign tumour removed about 6 months ago. She lives 3 hours away from me, so I have seen her a few times but only for short intervals and we regularly speak on the phone. Since her operation I have noticed she is always tired (also due to her heart medication) and that she has become more of a glass half empty type of person. Recently my father had a heart attack (serious but my Dad is a trooper and is now recovering after surgery). I have spent the last week with my mother, and with her thyroid and stress of my father I became her personal punching bag. Her erratic mood swings, outbursts and obsessing over trivial matters are well documented relating to the thyroid in all the googling I have done. What I can't find is any information on her memory loss/memory distortion of the facts. To give 2 examples (of many): 1. My parents had a lawyer at the hospital to update their will, so I went out and sat in the foyer. I was on my phone looking at Facebook to fill in time and one of Mum's friends sat beside me. I put my phone away and chatted to her friend. On the way home Mum had a go a me  because her friend told her that I spent the whole time looking at my phone whilst she was trying to talk to me. 2. After leaving my niece's 21st, my Mum tells me that one of my brothers was very cold to her all night and didn't talk to her. A couple of hours later as everyone is heading off to bed, my mother says "So (my brother) didn't talk to you either" with which I replied "Yes we did, I spent quite a lot of time talking to him". My mother than lost it completely and started yelling that I had told her that my brother didn't speak to me. Though I can't find any information about this type of memory loss, I am hoping someone might be able to give me a heads up. Also if someone has been told by a family member about their erratic emotions I would love to hear your advice on how to bring it up with my mother.

[gimel]

Her med is most likely T4 only,   Most of the all important T3 hormone comes from conversion of T4.  For a number of different reasons, hypothyroid patients often do not convert the T4 to T3 and need to add a source of T3 to their med.  

At some point (the sooner the better) you need to get your mother to accept that she is very likely to still be hypothyroid due to an inadequate dose of thyroid med, or the need for T3 to be added to her meds.  Also, if she is not supplementing with Vitamin D, B12 and iron, then it is most likely that she is deficient there also.  That is because hypothyroid patients are very often low in stomach acid and do not absorb vitamins and nutrients very well.  

I just noticed that you are in Australia.  I am not too familiar with how your doctors test, diagnose and treat hypothyroidism.  I expect that it is somewhat  difficult to get all the necessary testing and treatment.  One of our active members is from  Australis:  Red_Star.  You could get some good info from her.  To send a message, just click on her name over in the right hand side of the page here, and then, up in the top right hand corner, click on send a message..  .

[Son_Needing_Help]

Thank you for your reply,you have given me a lot of key words I can do further amateur research to help my mother. I don't know what meds she is on, only that she has to take them each morning an hour before eating

[gimel]

Memory loss, confusion, brain fog, mental sluggishness. poor concentration, delusions, and rage are all symptoms that are sometimes related to hypothyroidism.  Such mental problems may be related to reduced cerebral blood flow that has been documented with brain scans when hypothyroid and after adequate medication with thyroid med.  

If you know what thyroid med and dosage she is taking, please post that.  Also, if possible to get her thyroid related test results, please post those, along with their reference ranges shown on the lab report.  

If she has not been tested for the biologically active thyroid hormones, Free T4 and Free T3 (not the same as Total T4 and Total T3), then you should try to get that done for her.  Also, if not tested for Vitamin D and ferritin, then that should be done.  They are both very important for adequate metabolism of thyroid hormone.  D should be about 55-60 and ferritin should be 70 minimum.