I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Pre-Dialysis => Topic started by: Angiepkd on February 27, 2013, 07:54:00 PM

Title: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Angiepkd on February 27, 2013, 07:54:00 PM
As my function gets lower, my mind gets fuzzier. Yesterday I went to the grocery store (a15 minute drive one way). As I was getting out of my car, I realized I didn't have my purse.  Who goes to the store without any money lol? I was so aggravated at myself for being so stupid.  A few years ago I had over 100 employees working for me, now I can't manage to buy groceries. Lately I spend huge amounts of time looking for things I put away somewhere, searching for the water I just poured, walking into a room not knowing why I went in.  Anyone else have this problem? Hope I am not the only "crazy" person with ESRD!
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: jbeany on February 27, 2013, 09:04:11 PM
I've also heard it called "dialysis dementia."  Not that hearing that particular description helps - but it's accurate!

Personally, I'm writing off my entire marriage and divorce to my own case of dialysis dementia...   ;D
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Deanne on February 27, 2013, 09:21:52 PM
Yesterday I put something down while I went to get scissors. Then I spent 20 minutes looking for the thing I'd just set down. Finally found it on the counter under a cookie sheet. I swear I hadn't touched that cookie sheet. I looked at my hands several times to see if I was really holding the gadget I'd set down. Then 15 minutes later I couldn't find the scissors I'd just gone to get. Still haven' t found them.
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: MaryD on February 27, 2013, 10:06:50 PM
Count me in, too!

I get confused about who it was that rang me an hour ago.  I've started keeping a notebook next to the phone and just jotting down the name of the person who called.

My marbles are dropping off one by one.  I cling desperately to the remaining ones.
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Cordelia on February 28, 2013, 04:46:47 AM
They call it brain fog here. Got better for me after starting dialysis but even after starting dialysis you still walk around in a brain fog.
The most embarrassing thing that happened to me was before starting dialysis was forgetting not once but twice to meet my husband for lunch when he was at work!
To this day we have a little ongoing joke about that      :rofl;
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Joe on February 28, 2013, 05:49:00 AM
I find that when I'm talking, more and more often I have trouble thinking of the next work I want to say. Causes some rather pregnant pauses in the conversation while I'm groping for that word.
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Angiepkd on February 28, 2013, 08:22:44 AM
So glad I am not the only one! I must be repeating myself a lot, too. My husband will tell me he has already heard what I am telling him. Really?!? I don't remember it at all lol! The good news is I am easily amused. You can tell me the same joke 10 times and I will laugh like it's the first time I've heard it. I have taken up residence in "crazy town"!
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: MaryD on February 28, 2013, 03:08:18 PM
I have troubles selecting the right words, too, Joe.  I used to have an excellent vocabulary and the gift of the gab - now my 95 year old ex-neighbour (who has English as a second language) and I sit there grasping at words and helping each other complete sentences.  Most exasperating!
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: gothiclovemonkey on February 28, 2013, 11:40:05 PM
oh geez
im always forgetting words. easy ones, at that! The other day I couldnt remember "airport" uhhhh the things planes fly into, ya know? that building, the people touch you and stuff... wth.....
mid sentence, forget what im saying...
forget what im doing
forget appointments (that gets me into trouble!)
terrible.
and the longer im on D, seems the worse it gets!
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: MooseMom on March 01, 2013, 12:04:53 PM
I had abdominal surgery (not renal related) four and a half years ago and had trouble recovering from the general anesthetic, so much so that I was in the ICU for several nights.  From that point on, I've had trouble with word retrieval.  I can feel my brain flipping through vocabulary files until it reaches the right one.  And my brain now works far more quickly than my mouth, the result being that I start sounding incoherent when I speak.  I have to make a conscious decision to think and speak more slowly.  I KNOW it was from the anesthetic; it was like a cerebral flip was suddenly switched to the "off" position.

Honestly, my husband has "kidney brain" to a far greater extent than I do, and he doesn't have CKD!  Like the time he put the electric kettle on the stove and turned the fire on...
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Jean on March 02, 2013, 01:43:58 AM
It is so nice to know I am not alone. At least due to being 74 years old, I can sigh and say " senior moment" and usually get away with it. Kind of embarassing tho when I was chatting with a friend and said, oh, its over near the dishwasher. NOT a dishwasher, its a car wash!!!!
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: renalwife on March 02, 2013, 07:37:09 PM
That is funny.  I said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. 
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: dublin on March 19, 2013, 11:33:40 AM
Hi i think its just we are getting older i am 47 , sick over a year now and i have being putting things up safe in the house so i can find them when i need to i put my passport up safe and yes you guessed it 4 months after tearing the house apart i gave up and got a new one said i lost the other one they finaly issued me a new one , still have not found it so i did put it up safe. And talking i have to stop and think cos i lose my train of taught maybe it is because of dialysis , because we are just trying to get through this stuff.  :thumbup;
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: amanda100wilson on March 19, 2013, 06:23:20 PM
not sure if his is dialysis brain or just plain old stupidity.  I was reading an article in a magazine and the writing was too small.   I tried enlarging it with my fingers as you would don on an iPad screen! :shy;
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Mr Pink on March 20, 2013, 07:09:20 AM
My silliness has been with me long before I had kidney failure. I'm up front about it too. When the nurses ask me how I'm feeling, often i tell them; "a bit dozier than usual." In terms of doing something outrageously stupid, that hasn't happened yet (although friends and family would beg to differ). It can't be far away, though. Stay tuned. 
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: gothiclovemonkey on March 20, 2013, 11:30:50 AM
not sure if his is dialysis brain or just plain old stupidity.  I was reading an article in a magazine and the writing was too small.   I tried enlarging it with my fingers as you would don on an iPad screen! :shy;
LOL
Long before I even knew i had kidney failure, i believe i was about 13, i was having a conversation with my mother. I had been on the computer most of the day, and she had called me in to ask me something, when i replied I "typed" t her instead of speaking.... in mid air...
i was tired, it was late... thats my excuse :p
Title: Re: What is the silliest thing you have done with "kidney brain"?
Post by: Alex C. on March 23, 2013, 06:19:49 AM
I find that, at work, I need to re-check my findings at least 3 times, to be certain that I haven't forgotten something. I also leave lots of notes on things, and prefer to send e-mails rather than face-to-face conversations, due to the momentary inability to find the correct word. In fact, I've taken to keeping Google open while I compose messages, just because it can act as a thesaurus when i need it.