question for DocDavid ~ re:brain

Good question! I remember being so “foggy” that I would zone out driving down the block and decided that driving was not a good thing for me to be doing. I still have the fog and often forget things…which I did before GBS (my mind tends to think faster than I can keep up a lot of hte time) but not like this. Also, headaches. Dr’s say they are not associated with GBS but so many of us have them and have the bad ones. We may have had headaches before GBS but they seem to be more often now or at least worse.

My Dr. told me that my memory issues were caused by a.) Post-Tramatic Stress and b.) Neurontin.

My memory is completely back to normal now. I take Lyrica instead of Neurontin .

Jerimy

I still get the foggy brain I have CIDP It is worse with stress and being Tired.
I overdo things Very often and try to keep up with the family especially when I feel good. I find that i also cannot find my words and have to take time to slow down and get my words in order before that I speak my family still make fun of me when I cannot get a word out correctly. ( they forget that i still stuggle with this). That only means that I am doing a good job of making them believe that life goes on and that this dissabilty is not me it is just a condition and we can overcome anything if we try. they have finally begun to talk to me like I am me NOT this disease.

I think that the foggy brain is caused by mostly the medications you are all on. The anti-convulsants are altering your brain. Once Frank started on Neurontin and Darvocet he couldn’t remember so many things.

I think ‘foggy brain’ goes with GBS. Though not necessarily directly caused by GBS.

You know how many people say that teething in babies can cause colds etc and medical opinion seems to be that teething doesn’t cause colds?

Well, teething may not cause a baby to get a cold – but teething occupies the body leaving other avenues less protected so that colds are picked up more easily. So in medical terms, teething doesn’t cause colds – but they tend to go together, as many mothers know.

Maybe it is the same with GBS. Perhaps medically speaking, GBS itself does not cause brain fog as it does not affect the brain but that doesn’t mean it is not because of GBS.

After all, apparently GBS does not cause depression, After all, GBS affects the peripheral nervous system. But the results of the GBS and the experience of it can cause depression. So, it can be argued that what causes the depression is not GBS but the isolation, fear, loss of movement, pain etc.

Medically speaking, GBS does not cause depression. Layman speaking, oh yes it can.

To me, depression, brain freeze, foggy brain etc can be results of GBS though not necessarily directly caused by it.

I suppose you could look at it this way – if you have GBS and a foggy brain, treating the GBS won’t cure the foggy brain (because it is not directly caused by the GBS).

Another description would be (and this might seem daft) – acne does not cause depression as acne is to do with the skin. Depression could be a result of the acne though.

Yes, it is rather nit-picking but I think it is a valid point

So basically what causes GBS may not medically cause brain fog BUT brain fog can be a result of having had GBS.

Personally, I believe that GBS causes/kick-starts etc a myriad of things including fatigue, pain, brain fog, brain freeze (oh yes).

I don’t mind someone telling me that GBS is not the direct cause of my sometimes being so fatigued, freezing up in the middle of a conversation or constantly having cold feet – just as long as while they are telling me they are also putting a blanket over me when I lay down, telling me I don’t have t say a word, massaging my feet and doing the washing up – cos I’m too tired

If any of this makes sense – just how much have you been drinking?!!

God bless

i had the foggy brain before neurontin. neurontin did not make it worse after the initial sleepiness that neurontin caused left in a months time. take care. be well.

gene gbs 8-99
in numbers there is strength

Judi, you raise a good point which I think has been well answered by our friends. My point is that GBS is a demyelinating disorder of peripheral nerves and not a disorder of the ‘brain’. A number here have experienced the horrendous nigthmares and hallucinations associated with intensive care. This is not a feature of GBS but of any acute disorder that ends up in I.C.U. in my experience many severe acute disorders can cause ‘brain fog’. Also a number of family carers looking after the person disabled by GBS suffer brain fog for a year or more.
We all know the expression ‘I couldn’t think straight’ because of x,y,z. Well if you cannot think straight rerieval of memory is obscured as is muich of the input of memory. DocDavid

I had to add to this… my family has started keeping a list of the ‘new’ words I come up with. They seem to get quite a laugh out of this. I’m glad someone finds some humor in my life.