Census migrainity moment

I forgot to send in my census form so I got a knock on my door this morning and it is the Census Taker. Of Course I have a migraine. One of the ones where thinking is a chore. So I am answering all his very basic questions and then has asks me how old I am.

uhhhhhhhhhh Total blank. How old am I Umm lets see it is 2010. I was born in 61 so that makes me?????? I can't do the math. I'm thinking verrrrry hard and finally Oh! I'm 48! Whew!

Thank god I will never see him again! I hate when I do that in front of strangers! It so annoying. My migranity moment for the day.

Oh Alli,
if I were not a migraine sufferer I would never say so, but this is "funny"
I feel kind of frustrated when this happens, but after 5 minutes I just find it funny as I know that it's only temporary and due to migraines.

Last Thursday I was talking in a meeting, I had to explain the budget process. At a certain point, I stopped and cannot continue because I cannot find the word "estimate" in my brain (migraine was going to hit) but I could not even find another word/sentence to explain it so I had 5 people who stared at me for 30 seconds and who were trying to guess the missing word. It was embarassing but also fun. Finally the magic word came out from my sick neurons and we could continue with the meeting

alli wrote:So I am answering all his very basic questions and then has asks me how old I am.

uhhhhhhhhhh Total blank. How old am I Umm lets see it is 2010. I was born in 61 so that makes me?????? I can't do the math. I'm thinking verrrrry hard and finally Oh! I'm 48! Whew!

Oh, Alli, I hope it helps to hear I have that problem all the time too. It's so embarrassing.

Things that were once simple for me, are now beyond my grasp on most days. It's often so embarrassing to talk to people on the phone because I'll start talking about something and then completely forget what the point was, or I'll forget a word or name that I wanted to use.

I hope you can laugh about it when you're feeling better. Hope you're feeling better.

Happens to me alot. It's funny, but kind of in a "someone just shoot me sort of way. I also use wrong words because my brain doesn't realize it's chosen the wrong word.

It's frustrating though because I've explained to friends and family - and coworkers when I worked in an office - that this sometimes happens to me and it's because of the migraine, and have had people blantantly not believe me. My brother-in-law thinks I am on drugs (and tells people that I am, even now), his wife my sister insists he is just joking around (he isn't), and my other family members look at me like I am stupid. My friends are more sympathetic, they don't understand why my brain would short-circuit like that, but they don't challenge me as if I am lying to cover up something else. When I was employed, my coworkers looked at me the same way: "what is she hiding? because that can't be true, I never heard of that before." As if they'd know. Do they get migraines? Are they a dr.? How would they otherwise know? I felt like I should get a dr. note.

Sorry, just had to vent. It's very frustrating to have this happen and have people not believe its a symptom of the disease just because they think its too weird to be a symptom, or because they don't think you have a valid disease to begin with, or, worst of all, both.

It is frustrating. It happens to me almost every day at some point or another. Usually in the middle of a conversation I either completely lose my train of thought or I just can't pull "that word", whatever it is, out of my head. I stand there with that odd look on my face as I try to remember what a freakin cup is called! I can see it, I can almost tell you what it does, what the shape is, but the word.... it's just not there.

Everyone I work with and my family all know this happens so are patient. I also have that "sister" who thinks I am just a drug addict. For a variety of reasong, I choose not to talk to her anymore. It's bad enough to have to try to make myself understood out there in the world, but when the people who are supposed to be supportive are destructive instead...well, you have to choose your battles.

I do have to laugh sometimes when I have some space, but man this is a frustrating part of this disease!

I once forgot my own name!

Risa

This happens to me too. I knew it was the head short circuiting but I don't speak to that many people and mostly do email (thank goodness and can read it before sending it out).

Question - aside from Bubbs (whom I know this doesn't apply) did anyone else struggle with the written English language? I didn't get a decent grasp on this until grad school (sad I know but I had a wonderful, patient, anal-retentive advisor) and find in migrainity moments, my brain reverts to the same structures but for verbal as well as written.

Just curious.

My mother was an English Major so proper speaking and writing were drilled into me from an early age. I don't have problems writing, except for spelling errors, speaking is my big issue. If it wasn't for my Mom drilling into my head the proper way to write, I would probably have issues.

It seems that when my brain stops, it reverts to the simplest words. I have a large vocabulary from reading incessantly from a very young age but I tend to lose it when I have a migraine. When I have problems with some words, I may be trying to find a word that describes what I am trying to say, like "expensive" and I can't find it but I can eventually come up with "it costs a lot". I wonder if we revert to an earlier pattern because it is more deeply"etched" into our brains so is what we can reach when the brain freezes.

Alli,

My mom and brother got the English genes, I got the math and science from my dad. I do love to read and my mom read to me starting early and I was reading earlier than most of my peers. However this didn't translate to writing. I had some wonderful and patient teachers and a very helpful mother but I just couldn't do it on my own until I was mid-20's. It's always a battle. My mother deserves a medal for all the horrible high school papers and college papers she proofed for me. I wrote in thoughts, not complete sentences.

I have the same problem with the word. I'll sit and fight to come up with the word I'm looking for and revert to something simpler. Rather frustrating - being highly educated and sounding like I didn't complete high school half the time because this disease is short circuiting my language center.

Becky

I sometimes can come up with the first letter of the word I'm looking for but it takes several minutes, sometimes hours or days for me to remember that word. Isn't that weird?

I can understand completely!! I have it happen also. That is why I quit taking Topamax. It happened a lot lot more on that. You made me chuckle so it was worth it (for me )

My worst migrainity moment happened while I was on Topamax. My husband has a home business doing computer sales and service. Someone called one day and asked what kind of business we did. I couldn't pull the word computer from my mind to save my life. I sat staring at mine, trying to remember what it was called. I was SOOO embarrassed. I finally just told the guy we repaired electronics. LOL

Brenda - I don't know why but that had me laughing really hard. Guess I can relate. One day (during Topamax) I was talking to some go-workers and I meant to say "I don't have any------"(whatever we were talking about at the time) and it came out "I don't have any friends". One of my co-workers doubled over laughing and said "I'll be your friend". I was embarrassed and have no idea where "friend" came from when I meant to say something relevant to the conversation.

Oh I was right there with you. I laughed like crazy after I got of the phone and Frank reminded me what a computer was. hehe

The utlimate moment of migrainty - it's when I can not remember the word I need neither in English nor Polish
co I can't even translate one into other lololol

Risa

CluelessKitty wrote:The utlimate moment of migrainty - it's when I can not remember the word I need neither in English nor Polish
co I can't even translate one into other lololol

Risa

Welcome to the world of the unilingual. If the word won't come to me the best I can do is describe it or point and grunt.

I'm getting good at describing things with my hands. Pointing and grunting works too! Maybe I should learn sign language.... but then I would probably just be unable to sign, talk or think at all.

sadly, this affliction lasts even when your migraines are well controlled

i have trouble with speaking and writing, i am also dyslexic. i write and say words in the wrong order sometimes.

sometimes i can be talking, with my ideas flowing so freely, my speach so understandable.. then BAM .... i can't think of a word i use MULTIPLE times a day like ANESTHESIA - my field of work!
just happened this morning.....

beth

The word thing. I get it too. I thought it was age, or menopause...
I know I know the word, I reach for it....usually if I go through the alphabet I can recall what it begins with.
Then I go for the second letter, or it comes....
If all else fails I say to whoever is there....."oh what is the word I want....it begins with...."
And they can second guess me.

It is so frustrating and makes me feel like an idiot.....

Migraine.....who knew??!!