Question:
Hello all, I have been reading the post on hysterectomies and hormones/or lack of and I had a partial hysterectomy in 1993? 94?. Anyways, about a week afterwards I was feeling really strange, irritable, grumpy, snapping at everyone, restless,…. so I called my gyn to see if I may need hormone pills. He had me on zanax and since I just stopped drinking and finished my 28 day program at a rehabiliation center- I was afraid to continue with the zanax, plus they weren’t helping the symptons I was having. He put me on premarin and I swear I cuold tell the difference within 30 minutes. Hubby (at the time) said it was all in my head, coulda been but I still know how much better I felt. Now I read td’s post on not being able to come up with certain words and so on and I have this problem,….. Huge events such as that surgery/hysterectomy I was referring to, I can’t remember the exact date. not really the year. At the time my Grandma knew I had trouble with this so I wrote it all down in a notebook, including what the doctor took out, but get this,………..I lost the notebook several years ago when I moved. Another example, my sister was helping me to file a pro ?? somehting divorce, (do it yourself type) and she needed the date and place/county where my husband I were married, and I could not for the life of me recall. I knew it was shortly after I had sobered up but couldn’t pinpoint the year much less where. It took several weeks of calling and driving before I finally found out the info. Does anyone else besides me and td have this problem? And I wonder why this happens? I mean, an important date such as a marraige or a major surgery should have an impact in my brain somewhere, but it didn’t. Just curious, Jeannie
Response:
Hi JEANNIE! > Does anyone else besides me and td have this problem? And I wonder why this > happens? I mean, an important date such as a marraige or a major surgery should > have an impact in my brain somewhere, but it didn’t.
Actually, I don’t think that I blame not remembering dates on PTSD or hormones. And, the ’should’ stuff drives me crazier. 
It is culturally incumbent upon women to remember all these little details. Men don’t remember and no one gets upset about that. It’s an ongoing joke, culturally, like the one that men won’t ask directions but drive for hours insisting that they are not lost! I remember what I need to remember when I remember. Trying to ’should’ myself into remembering simply makes it more difficult for me to actually remember … this is my stress reaction. And, as I get older, dates for a lot of things get progressively less important to me. Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
Hi Jeannie, UUUUmmmmmm, what was the question? 
jokin’ w/u I have to write myself notes just to go into town to be sure I do all the errands I intend to do. I write myself notes and then forget to read the notes. Because they left my ovaries in, I figured I was just fine. NOT!!!! I went through menopause and didn’t even know it… well, I had what might have been a hot flash once one day. At the same time I was going through menopause, my thyriod started crapping out. Add to that I was being emotionally/mentally tortured by a very VERY sick co-worker who was taking complete advantage of my "don’t say anything bad about the person, others will figure it out for themselves" approach in handling it…….. I went into a deep depression. Then came the meds and the PTSD diagnoses. Whether it’s menopause, depression, PTSD, the meds or whatever, my memory has taken a major trip goodbye. But I’ve got one little trick to help myself that I figured out at work one day: If I think of something that I need to do or remember, I call my home number and leave a message for myself! Beside the telephone is one of those message boards that use a felt marker to write on, then you can just wipe it off when the message is no longer needed. It works great for me. If I have an immediate thing I need to remember, I just write the message on the board and put it on the counter in the kitchen where I know I’ll see it during the day. My sister was visiting once and was talking about how her husband can’t find anything. She said, "You have to have a uterus to be able to find things". I said, "Well hey, that’s what happened to me!" There ya have it….. Z55 Nancy <ki…@cox.net> wrote in message
news:DQSc9.35235$Or1.2393728@news2.east.cox.net… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi JEANNIE! > > Does anyone else besides me and td have this problem? And I wonder why > this > > happens? I mean, an important date such as a marraige or a major surgery > should > > have an impact in my brain somewhere, but it didn’t. > Actually, I don’t think that I blame not remembering dates on PTSD or > hormones. And, the ’should’ stuff drives me crazier. > It is culturally incumbent upon women to remember all these little details. > Men don’t remember and no one gets upset about that. It’s an ongoing joke, > culturally, like the one that men won’t ask directions but drive for hours > insisting that they are not lost! > I remember what I need to remember when I remember. Trying to ’should’ > myself into remembering simply makes it more difficult for me to actually > remember … this is my stress reaction. And, as I get older, dates for a > lot of things get progressively less important to me. > Smile and there will be something to smile about! > Nancy
Response:
Jeannie, I have all my female parts intact, but I have horrendous memory problems too. My t says with me it’s the DID stuff–so I guess it is. But you’re alone. One of my favorites sayings is: "Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most." : ) kat
Response:
Hi Kat, I like that saying! Z55 Kathie <kathi…@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:unb17st5048p12@corp.supernews.com… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Jeannie, > I have all my female parts intact, but I have horrendous memory problems > too. My t says with me it’s the DID stuff–so I guess it is. > But you’re alone. One of my favorites sayings is: "Of all the things I’ve > lost, I miss my mind the most." : ) > kat
Response:
It fits. : / My keyring says, "I didn’t lose the keys–this time I lost the whole damn car!". Which has happened, more times than I can remember. When I found the keyring in the store though, I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face. People were walking by looking at me strangely. Knew I had to buy it, it felt like it was specially made for me! LOL! Both sayings very fitting for my memory. kat "Z55" <Zzon…@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:WAAd9.18260$Ik.459877@typhoon.sonic.net… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi Kat, > I like that saying! > Z55 > Kathie <kathi…@frontiernet.net> wrote in message > news:unb17st5048p12@corp.supernews.com… > > Jeannie, > > I have all my female parts intact, but I have horrendous memory problems > > too. My t says with me it’s the DID stuff–so I guess it is. > > But you’re alone. One of my favorites sayings is: "Of all the things > I’ve > > lost, I miss my mind the most." : ) > > kat
Response:
"JEANNIELAMONT" <jeannielam…@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020902150059.00999.00001050@mb-ms.aol.com… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hello all, > I have been reading the post on hysterectomies and hormones/or lack of and I > had a partial hysterectomy in 1993? 94?. > Anyways, about a week afterwards I was feeling really strange, irritable, > grumpy, snapping at everyone, restless,…. > so I called my gyn to see if I may need hormone pills. He had me on zanax and > since I just stopped drinking and finished my 28 day program at a rehabiliation > center- I was afraid to continue with the zanax, plus they weren’t helping the > symptons I was having. > He put me on premarin and I swear I cuold tell the difference within 30 > minutes. Hubby (at the time) said it was all in my head, coulda been but I > still know how much better I felt. > Now I read td’s post on not being able to come up with certain words and so on > and I have this problem,….. > Huge events such as that surgery/hysterectomy I was referring to, I can’t > remember the exact date. not really the year. At the time my Grandma knew I > had trouble with this so I wrote it all down in a notebook, including what the > doctor took out, but get this,………..I lost the notebook several years ago > when I moved. > Another example, my sister was helping me to file a pro ?? somehting divorce, > (do it yourself type) and she needed the date and place/county where my husband > I were married, and I could not for the life of me recall. I knew it was > shortly after I had sobered up but couldn’t pinpoint the year much less where. > It took several weeks of calling and driving before I finally found out the > info. > Does anyone else besides me and td have this problem? And I wonder why this > happens? I mean, an important date such as a marraige or a major surgery should > have an impact in my brain somewhere, but it didn’t. > Just curious, > Jeannie
Hi Jeannie. I’m a little slow in the head these days, but I’ll add my two cents anyways. If I’m reading you correctly, both your surgery and marriage occurred around the time you got sober. There are two reasonable explanations for your failure to remember things from that period. The first factor is that both alcohol and xanax, and withdrawal from both, interfere with REM (dreaming) sleep. If your sleep is disrupted, you cannot move information from short-term to long-term memory. Memories just disappear. Painkillers and anaesthetics do the same thing, by the way. The second factor is something called state-dependent learning. If there are significant emotional experiences about the time of the creation of the memory trace, it can be impossible to remember the event unless you can also recreate the emotional environment. This is one of the reasons that repressed traumatic memories can be so hard to bring back, because we don’t permit ourselves to get into the emotional part of the original experience. I’m not suggesting you were traumatized, but instead, that there may be important emotional factors that you are having difficulty bringing to bear while you try to recall those events. A quite separate thing is that we’re getting older. The ability to retain memory declines from about the age of 17. Hope you’re doing OK in school. Lar
Response:
Hi Lar, >If your sleep is disrupted, you cannot >move information from short-term to long-term memory. Memories just >disappear. Painkillers and anaesthetics do the same thing, by the way.
Wow, I never knew this. Right now I am on pain meds for my back and I am having trouble remembering things in school. Even notes I write down, when I go back to looking over them, they sometimes look foreign. Especially if it’s in one of the classes I am not interested in. And as far as sleep, that is another area I am having trouble with because of neighbors and then domestic issues at home with my son. Thank you so much for this information and for asking about school. IT IS HARD. Really hard. 2 classes are the pits, government and western civ until 1468. YUK. Well, I am understanding government a lot better and have to say I am liking it more every day but as far as learning about the Old World and what different tribes built and fought over, doesn’t catch my interest in the least. But, I will try and hang on until I have surgery which is scheduled right after Christmas break-Dec 18th. Then, I wont have to worry about the pain meds and this unbelievable pain. Oh well, no more whining here,……….for now anyways, ha ha ha How is life treating you? Writing any more poems you’d like to share? Take care, Jeannie
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