Memory Issues

[Mike in Maine]

All of you have any issues with short term memory issues?

Mike

 

[Cammarak]

Ha! Who knows where the reply I just submitted went! It took me three tries just to log in to reply! I'm often searching for words in class---my students try to come to my rescue. My computer is covered with post it notes to remind me what to do when I'm doing things like logging into sites I've found in the last two years.

 

[gooseberry]

Steve has a lot of short term memory issues. Word recall, phone messages, visitors who come, something he read, etc. He tries to keep a list in ca it is important. I have to go thru it everyday when I get home. The worst is if someone wakes him, he often doesn't remember it at all.

 

[tripete]

"Steve has a lot of short term memory issues. Word recall, phone messages, visitors who come, something he read, etc." DITTO.

I have trouble finding the right words when I am talking.

 

[gooseberry]

yes, that is a problem for him too Pete!

 

[azwxman]

Me, too, but I just chalk it up to the fact that I'm nearly 59 and it's not unusual for the memory to begin to fail us all.

 

[affected]

I'm a little confused - is this a PLS question? Mike aren't you now ALS?

I don't know anything about PLS and the frontal lobe.

 

[gooseberry]

At the VA clinic, the psychiatrist the said a higher percentage, than previously thought , of people with als will have memory issues and confusion. I was asking her because I made a comment that sometimes I thought Steve had Alzheimers too.

 

[FrJn]

I certainly have short-term memory issues and am recognizing some other cognitive declines as well. I've always just chalked it up to advancing age (although I refuse to use the "O" word... ). I've begun preaching from the pulpit, with a written copy of my homily in front of me. That's a practice I've eschewed for decades, preferring to be in the center aisle speaking with the people, not elevated above them and speaking to them.

Some like it, some plead with me to return to that center aisle. But, with my frequent inability to latch onto the word for which I'm looking, I find safety in that written text in front of me.

Ah well...

John

 

[billbell52]

I have Bulbar PLS. This is a rare form of PLS which is a rare MND. I noticed when my speech was first deteriorating I would search for words I could pronounce when I was talking. It wasn't so much as searching for a word but for a simple 1 or 2 syllable word I could pronounce.

 

[Mike in Maine]

Tillie,
You're right should be posting on the ALS side, old habits die hard. The PLS side is what I have bookmarked, need to change that. Thanks for pointing it out, sorry


Mike

 

[Schmutz]

Good heavens! People pay that much attention to ALS vs PLS! Naturally, I'm glad to have PLS. So far, no doctors have suggested ALS and I'm not worried about that. It's been almost 14 years since my symptoms started.

I hate that progression has speed-ed up but then who wouldn't? My memory comes and goes. Some days I can remember what I saw in the New York Times in the morning - other daYs not at all.

I forget where I left my cane when I use it around the house and suddenly lose my energy, sit down, and need my cane to walk around again. 'Good thing I don't go wandering around the house when my husband isn't home.

My memory failure is most painful and most obtious when I stop writing my story (my book I'vebeen known to call it) and try to resume but have to re=read to see where I left off.

So it goes...

Anne

 

[Clearwater AL]

Anne, I agree with Tillie, there is a significant difference between ALS and PLS. Of course anyone is welcome to post here but it can get confusing when someone with ALS writes about certain symptoms. As you wrote, you're 14 years into your symptoms. Your Bio Interest says, "Other"... being diagnosed with PLS is an MND. So, your Bio Interest can be ALS/MND too. I wish there was a Bio Interest just for Diagnosed with PLS.

I know about dementia, my wife has Alzheimers, most of what I have read in the posts above is just the earliest of concerns of dementia (maybe) and most could be just written off to aging and the CRS thing that goes with it.

 

[affected]

Thanks Mike, I did ask because I truly don't know about frontal lobe stuff and PLS, but I know a fair about it with ALS.

There are variants of FTD, but most types don't present so much with memory issues.

I know that the older i have become since around 30 the more trouble I've had with short term memory, and in times of high stress it is increased.

billbell Chris had exactly the same problem. He would know what he wanted to say when his speech was not too bad, but complex words were hard to say so he would be sitting there trying to put his thoughts into a sentence made up of simpler words. By the time he had the sentence worked out the conversation had moved on ... so frustrating for him!

 

[olly]

Baclofen causes cognitive dysfunction with long term usage...this has been the case with me.