neuro symptoms/impatient health care providers

[Guest guest]

I'm finding that my health care providers are reacting negatively to

my Lyme-related neurological difficulties and wonder if others here

have had similar experiences.

One way Lyme has damaged me is that my cognitive functioning can slow

down tremendously.

My intelligence is still very high but my brain often takes longer to

make the neural connections it seems.

If I'm having a poor brain day, I need people to slow down in

explaining things simply so the neural connections can take place.

It's not that I don't understand them, it's that I'm slow in

processing the info.

When someone asks me a question, I can be slow in answering. Not

because I don't understand the question, or don't have the answer.

It's that my brain needs more time now to shift from the present

conversation to a new one. It's like waiting for a slow regrouping

to move from one conversational context to the next.

In conversations, I sometimes have a slow time in getting the words

and thoughts in my brain down to my mouth to speak them.

In the fall I was seeing a physical therapist extensively.

When she'd ask me to describe the discomfort or immobility I'd

experienced since the last visit, if I didn't have a rapid, short

response, she'd keep asking me different versions of the question

and, thereby, preventing me from giving my answer. Alternatively,

she'd finish all my sentences for me. I would say " you're finishing

my sentences for me! " but got no response.

This week I had my third visit with someone I was hoping to have as a

primary care doctor.

When she walked into the room she told me that I shouldn't be giving

the physician's assistant who takes me vital signs all the details

that I'd given her; I should wait for the doctor to come in to list

the symptoms. Erm, then, why does the PA ask for the symptoms and

keep saying " anything else. " (and you know how many symptoms the

Lyme-afflicted can have at one moment in time)

As the doc was asking me questions about the symptoms I was having,

she then told me that she was asking questions that only required a

yes or no answer and that I didn't need to give her all the

information I was giving. It didn't feel gentle to me; and I've been

thinking of it ever since.

Geesh, even the simplest of questions can be confusing (to me).

" Do you get fevers? "

I really couldn't answer yes or no to that, so I explained that my

normal temperature is low, that sometimes with a Lyme flare it gets

higher and I go into a state that can only be described as " fever and

chills. " So, the doc explained that fever means maybe 99, but really

100 degrees or over.

How the heck was I supposed to know the answer?

I know that I am not the only one in the world who looks at a medical

questionnaire or a school exam and ponders over simple yes or no

questions with the thought " does it mean this or does it mean that? "

In many other situations, especially phone conversations, I have to

slow the other person down so I can function.

When getting info over the phone and I'm finding it takes a ton more

time than it used to for the info to get into my ears --> get

deciphered in my brain --> move from my brains to the nerves and

muscles of my hand so I can write the info on paper so that it will

later be legible. This can be as simple as writing an appointment

into my DayTimer and asking for the person to not go on with the

conversation so I can have a chance to write it down.

If a person is typing when they are talking to me on the phone, the

clacking of the keys can completely disrupt my ability to hear myself

think in order to talk to the person.

Help! This is affecting me in numerous areas of my life.

Who else has anything like this happen while engaging with other

people? What do you do about it?

I am feeling overwhelmed and deeply distressed by this and would

really appreciate some responses.

Thanks so much.

Blue