May 24 2008
Feeling Foggy?
Working Around The Fog
Living near the beach brings interesting weather. We often experience coastal fog in the mornings and late at night. Most of the time its just something we work around, by driving more slowly and cautiously or using fog lights. Occasionally, though, the fog can get quite thick to the point where it seems pointless or unsafe to attempt to navigate through it.
In many ways this coastal fog is reminiscent of “brain fog” or “fibro fog.” While it’s possible to work around fibro fog, it does require special effort. Some people use note cards, others lists or timers. I’m sure there are hundreds of individual methods for coping with this short-term fuzziness. And most of the time these “helps” work great.
Other times simple equations, memories or knowledge is inaccessible, trapped in a foggy blankness that we call fibro fog. I used to be excellent at remembering locations of my children’s cast off items, my friend’s phone numbers, and multiplication facts. Lately when asked questions concerning these things, however, my responses have changed, because my brain cannot always compute the answer quickly enough. Sometimes I cannot even understand what the words mean for brief moments and feel momentarily blank. So, I’ve come up with some standard answers for when I‘m too tired to push through the fog. They may seem sarcastic, but at least they don’t make my family wonder about me.
Mom, what’s 2×6? The amount of laundry loads I’ve done this week.
Mom, where’s my Hurley sweatshirt? Wherever you last left it. Try the car.
Honey, where’s the number for…? Check the Caller ID.
By the way, Caller ID is a fabulous invention for coping with fibro fog. But, if you can relate to this post, you probably already know that. For more information on fibro fog or brain fog, check out this link collection. If you know enough about it and just want some great coping tips, check out this link.
P.S. For all the moms out there, “fibro fog” is very similar to pregnancy amnesia, except it doesn’t go away once the baby is born!
5 Responses to “Feeling Foggy?”
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I’ve experienced myself lately. From reading your posts on this subject and others on fibromyalgia, I’m starting to wonder if a lot of the health problems I’ve experienced the last year or two are all related somehow. I was beginning to think I was going crazy with all that was happening to me at once.
I can relate! I used to be great at remembering phone numbers and lists of things in my head. But after I developed fibro, I cannot seem to remember everything as well. I’m definitely going to check out some more of those tips you linked to, to see if they can help me out some!
Regina & Pinkink - You’ll note that I mentioned fibrofog as being similar to pregnancy amnesia. I really think that when the science is all said and done, there will obvious links for fibromyalgia in female hormones. I know right now a lot of research focuses on the central nervous system, but I think we’re going to find that in the end it all goes back to those dang female hormones. They affect so much and could explain its prevalance in females as well as most of the symptoms. Think PMS. Anyway, you’re not going crazy, it’s just part of this wacky FMS. I take hope in the fact that its not degenerative and that someday (hopefully soon) we will have real answers.
ummmm sweetie, pregnancy brain cells don’t come back either - now that could explain a few things right? LOL
Seriously though, brain fog is one of the worst things associated with chronic fatigue. Bad enough you don’t have much energy, but having to go somewhere twice because the first time you can’t remember why you went is way more energy than you need to spend!
Caller ID is my auxiliary memory.