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        New Message Board Archives >> 2002 Posts >> Foggy brain, a little help?
        
(Message started by: johninaz on Sep 15^th, 2002, 10:35pm)

Title: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by johninaz on Sep 15^th, 2002, 10:35pm

cluster headaches (chronic for the first 13 years, now episodic for two)

foggy thinking from either 15 years of cluster headaches or cluster headache medications or both. seem to have lost my mental edge, memory lapses, confused thinking sometimes.... not just during cluster-time, but even when i'm not getting them.

any ideas for dealing with the problem?

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by Charlie on Sep 15^th, 2002, 10:54pm

Not sure if this makes sense to anyone but I took Inderal which is a beta blocker. This stuff would usually do well as an abortive for me after a week or so. Added to my epilepsy drugs, I was a zombie and after a few weeks, I'd stop using it. It never came back for me until the next expected cycle. I was willing to endure my episodic attacks rather than sleep ten hours a day. My attacks were usually 20 minutes or less though.

Charlie

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by forgetfulnot on Sep 15^th, 2002, 11:57pm

John, I can tell you that I am about five years ahead of you in this. I lost my position at a company I had a part in starting. That was May 1999. I was an insurance negative and my presence was costing the company way too much in insurance costs. I have had several jobs since then but, when I filled out the insurance forms within a few weeks they decided to do something else or I wasn’t the right person for job or some other such bullshit.

I have other problems beyond C/H however they are not treatable so only C/H med,s come into play.

You don’t say what you are or were taking for C/H.

I take lithium and verapamil daily, saved my fucking life, however for the last eight years or so my attention span, short term and long term memory have declined.

My last job was a manager at a national camera/photo finishing type retail store, after about 6 weeks the regional guy came in and wanted to print out our numbers, alas, I am the only guy with the password, I could not cough up the password from memory to save my ass. Very embarrassing.

My Daughter is getting married in a few weeks, If you asked me my son in law’s name ahhhhhhh I don’t ahhhhhhhh Mike?

That kind of crap happens every day now.

I think that just dealing with the pain could have something to do with it, I try to forget about it and go on. But at the same time I am forgetting other things as well.

Lee :(

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by Jim R on Sep 16^th, 2002, 5:07am

johninaz,

Ditto to Charlie's and Lee's posts. I've had CH's for 23 years (episodic) and have been on a plethora of drugs. Had a 7 year remission on verapamil alone, until last year. Then on verapamil and lithium - worked like a charm but with sides effects like memory loss among many others. This year this combo didn't work and I was toxic on it as well, so started a round of drug experimentation: topamax (anti-seizure) - didn't work, felt like a zombie as Charlie indicated, doubled verapamil alone - didn't work, added catapres (alpha agonist), didn't work well, doubled catapres - working better, but now ankles are swelling and I'm a little short of breath (? congestive heart failure symptoms - I'm only 47!), BUT I can think properly now and my memory is probably as good as any 47 year old's! LOL! Anyway, I guess it's one of the prices we pay to be PF... Good luck. - Jim R

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by johninaz on Sep 16^th, 2002, 7:57am

Thanks, Charlie, Lee and Jim. I definitely had mental functioning issues when I was on some of them, especially Lithium. But now while I'm not on any medications I still have a bad memory and the foggy thinking. I'm 42 years old. I guess learning to cope with the memory loss is the best I can do?

I'm off medications till I get ok'd to use them again if my liver is ok enough. I had a bad liver enzyme test result and now have a referral to a gastroenterologist to look into it further.

Mostly on verapamil for all these years, when it fails to work, have been on all kinds of others, the most effective being lithium--which also had the worst effects on my mental functions.

The lithium seemed to be the one that led to my going from chronic to episodic (thank God!). But it was 3 or 4 years after I quit smoking, so that may have helped me go episodic, too.

Right now just using oxygen, cold air, aerobic exercise at onset to abort headaches. Even if I wake up too late to abort the headache right away, jumping up and down (like jumping rope but with no rope) in the breeze of ceiling fan keeps the pain from getting too bad. Also, pinching my forehead hard seems to help. Got that idea from a post about potato chip clips applied near eye.

In fact, the aerobic excercise, cold air, the nonrebreather mask for the oxygen, the chip clip/pinching the forehead--all these ideas came from you guys here at ch.com over the years. Thank you, DJ, more than you can ever know. Thank you, all you folks that have shared so many ideas that have made me able to cope and made the coping so much easier these last several years.

Thanks again for your help, guys.

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by Charlie on Sep 16^th, 2002, 8:48am

I forgot about Topamax. That stuff scrambled me to the point I wasn't sure much about anything. Too bad as it was the best anti-seizure drug I've used http://www.headachesupportgroups.com/echat43/soapbox.gif

Anyway, since I stopped taking it, I'm back to being only as dumb as before.

Charlie

Title: Re: Foggy brain, a little help?
Post by echo on Sep 16^th, 2002, 9:00am

I can relate to what you are going through.
CH has cost me many a promotion due to inability to remain focused. When I'm on I'm really on. When the beast is dancing I can barely sort my name out of the alphabet.