Change in brain function

I had a reminder last year when I got Covid just how much I have lost in clear thinking. The first week of Covid I was able to easily think clearly. There was no problem whatsoever working out meals, and what to do next was not laboured with working out what had to be done, what should I leave and that whole long exhausting process where it feels like your thoughts are balloons flying away and you are having to catch them to bring the thought back and then trying to hold on them all gets too much.

When I felt the ME brain coming back about the 8th day of Covid I had two days where I was going through that disquieted shock and realization once again of the significant change in brain function. I never mentioned that part on a thread I did because I was still going through all those emotions I felt when I first got ME.

There is so much more to describe. I often wonder how others are impacted and why we are different with some symptoms. Do I have more than brain fog? Is brain fog part of OI and is there another type of brain symptom. Why do we have so many major debilitating symptoms.
 
From foggy depths I recall everything came to a grinding halt.
Often felt disengaged and had difficulty focusing (a new experience after years of study & performance/working internationally as a professional classical musician).

I became one of the semi-permanently bewildered … bouts of (prescribed) steroids has enabled a blink into having access to my brain again. The contrast is massive.
Ideas flood my brain in a focused and structured way … something now missing in my everyday ME life.
 
AliceLily said:
that whole long exhausting process where it feels like your thoughts are balloons flying away and you are having to catch them to bring the thought back and then trying to hold on them all gets too much.
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Yes, absolutely relate AliceLily.
Thanks for this.

It often feels like a catch 22… needing to make informed decisions to help live with or improve complicated ,often misunderstood health , yet being so confounded and interminably exhausted. (? foggy mumblings !)
 
AliceLily said:
@T&O you have the OI too? Just wondering if there is anyone without OI but with the brain change.
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I would be an example, I never had noticeable OI but definitely brain fog. Now when I’m pretty mild trying to do grad school, my biggest limitation is probably cognitive (but also I’ve arranged my life to do most things from home). If I try to spend too much time reading papers or working on code, my brain feels like it’s melting into itself. I can’t make decisions or accomplish anything more complicated than 2 steps, and too much noise makes me want to start crying.
 
jnmaciuch said:
I would be an example, I never had noticeable OI but definitely brain fog. Now when I’m pretty mild trying to do grad school, my biggest limitation is probably cognitive (but also I’ve arranged my life to do most things from home). If I try to spend too much time reading papers or working on code, my brain feels like it’s melting into itself. I can’t make decisions or accomplish anything more complicated than 2 steps, and too much noise makes me want to start crying.
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Yes, same with the emotional liability. That is interesting to me that you don't have the OI but do have the change in brain function. Which makes me think there is a brain change apart from the brain fog of OI.

Looking back to my earlier years of ME there was definite change right at the start with brain function but the OI wasn't as noticeable until the ME got more moderate.
 
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AliceLily said:
@T&O you have the OI too? Just wondering if there is anyone without OI but with the brain change.
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Perhaps its important to first note severity of ME , in contemplating further comparisons of OI together with brain changes ?

jnmaciuch said:
my biggest limitation is probably cognitive (but also I’ve arranged my life
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Sounds like you are making progress even if working with serious challenges and needing more time than youd have wished.
 
I don't have brain fog or OI, but I have problems with visual processing. Watching TV or switching tabs on my laptop causes symptoms almost immediately and put me into PEM territory within an hour. I basically can't tolerate anything with flashing images. Scrolling horizontally on my phone is much worse than scrolling vertically, but unlike larger screens I can tolerate it for a while.
 
AliceLily said:
Is it separate from OI or part of it.
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It's a really interesting question.

For me, it's both. My brain function is definitely impacted by being upright—I can't speak and walk at the same time—but it will begin to pass once I've sat down and had a rest.

The thing that really addles my brain is PEM resulting from too much physical activity. The effect can last a long time, much longer than the other PEM symptoms.

I can test for brain fog using the scientific unit of the cryptic crossword. After activity, puzzles by a setter whose clues I can usually parse become incomprehensible. They have added special effects too, the black and white squares of the grid slide about and swap places.

If I'm well-rested, I can solve them. I know this because I go back to them (sometimes weeks later) and it's always the same experience. There are clues that look so barn door obvious that I can't believe I couldn't solve them; that I didn't get the little joke.
 
@AliceLily

Are you referring to cognitive function or brain function that also affects physical function?

I didn't have negative cognitive function issues after contracting Covid, it only affected my stamina for several months.

I also didn't have cognitive function issues with ME until 11 years later after I started exercising again which made everything worse.
 
OrganicChilli said:
I don't have brain fog or OI, but I have problems with visual processing. Watching TV or switching tabs on my laptop causes symptoms almost immediately and put me into PEM territory within an hour. I basically can't tolerate anything with flashing images. Scrolling horizontally on my phone is much worse than scrolling vertically, but unlike larger screens I can tolerate it for a while.
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I have the visual problems too. I couldn't watch the TV at very severe ME, still don't tolerate flashing lights and programmes on TV where they change from frame to frame so quick you haven't time to focus well on each. Scrolling on facebook is beyond me and I prefer to use my laptop than a phone for viewing the internet.

I remember in my severer years I couldn't bear to walk down steep stairs. I think that might have be the OI and walking in large high ceiling buildings caused imbalance in gait.
 
Kitty said:
It's a really interesting question.

For me, it's both. My brain function is definitely impacted by being upright—I can't speak and walk at the same time—but it will begin to pass once I've sat down and had a rest.
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Do you feel like your brain function is normal after a rest? I feel like mine is a permanent change that doesn't go away it just worsens when I have overdone or there is too much of other triggers. Then I have to rest but it never goes back to a normal function that I can tell.

It is either wired and tired and can't think or racing thinking, or after resting I fall back into a drifting, slow type of thinking where you'd think I had motivation problems because everything is harder to sort in their right place.
 
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