I was (am?) a fairly high iq person, national merit scholarship, 99.8%tile SAT scores, etc. Degree in mathematics, compsci.
I had a stroke in my 30s, and it was thankfully mild (slight dysarthria that went away in a month) but I'm certain it impacted my intelligence and ability to concentrate. I can't focus/concentrate for long sessions anymore. I used to be able study without problem until the need to sleep kicked in, but now I get tired/distracted after only a short time even if I'm well rested. I find complicated math significantly harder to learn than I did prior to the stroke.
When I complained about this to my local PCP he would only run normal post-stroke cognitive tests like word recall, naming places/things, etc. "You test normal".
So I got a 2nd evaluation from a neurologist at Mayo.
Feedback was basically the same thing. He diagnosed mild depression, suggesting that could be part of it, and offered an anti-depression med, also threw in a "you're getting older so can expect some slowdown" for good measure.
I probably should have took it because the clear-to-me-loss of ability, with my doctors not seeming to give a shit, or even talk about it left me with no hope or plan to recover it has made me want to kill myself at times over the years. (I'm fine now, not a threat or risk).
I still read and try and just do my best even though my best isn't what it used to be, and count myself lucky that the stroke didn't leave me disabled or with permanent apparent deficiencies.
I just wish it were easier to find doctors interested in helping you be the best you can instead of simply not broken.
Took 3 years and dozens of doctor and hospital visits to figure out. At every stage I was dismissed. Took a big clot that nearly killed me to figure it out.
I had severe cognitive decline, but since I started at borderline genius and went down to “somewhat slow” they felt I was fine. I regained much after starting blood thinners, but not all.
Infuriating. So sorry you had to go through that unnecessary part.
> I regained much after starting blood thinners, but not all.
Bittersweet! Thanks for sharing, and my best to you.
Yeah I went through some medical things some years ago and one interaction has stuck with me. I described the issue to a specialist and the doctor’s response was “what makes you think that’s abnormal?” and basically tuned me out. It’s abnormal for me!
I have no idea and wouldn't claim this is true for you in your situation though. My partner has brain cancer and I wish I'd tried this earlier.
I wrote a blog post, which I intend to submit for fact-checking some day: https://www.taxiwars.org/2021/06/folly-medical-hyperventilat...
After posting that I figured out how the antidote for oxygen toxicity got memory-holed. It was in the 1950's, and ... there was a little protest, circa 1959, saying the new guidelines weren't so great for carbon monoxide poisoning.
My email address is in my profile, drop a line with a link to this comment and I'll provide more references.
I'm a neurosurgeon and we commonly advise our patients: Even after a "perfect" or minimal surgery without any evidence of periprocedural stroke or complication, you may not ever be the same again. Sometimes it takes months for these changes to be noted, sometimes it's only even noticed by family members. Odd word finding difficulties, perception changes, memory/concentration issues; the gamut is endless. As we say, no one's the same when the air hits your brain.
Username checks out
seriously, though thanks for the insights and... how the hell do you have the time/energy to visit HN?
I wish there was a searchable index of Dr's that fall into this category. I have no idea how you'd reasonably determine this though... Plenty of Dr's I've tried based on reviews are no different than the others. Maybe friendlier, but that's about it.
BPC-157 and lion’s mane in particular.
It really depend on the exact issues and symptoms involved. Maybe the visual system is damaged, or the vestibular (balance) or other areas. Thankfully, the brain is incredibly fault tolerant, so it can still find workarounds and co-op other systems to make up some of the difference.
But the workarounds are less efficient and this creates a tremendous load on attention and working memory. In hardware terms, imagine you're playing some graphics-heavy game and your GPU gets fried. The CPU can still run it, but it'll be really laggy and overheated. Luckily the brain can (sometimes) heal and rebuild broken systems. But it takes work.
Somewhere around 90% of concussion suffers have visual problems. Poor tracking, double vision, light sensitivity, difficulty focusing. Their brain compensates so well they might not even notice, but that sort of thing interferes with memory and wears out the brain really quickly. Therapy involving eye tracking, smooth pursuits, focusing practice and the like can get your brain to repair or rebuild those skills. That frees up all that processing power and gets you feeling more normal.
The Shaken Brain by Elizabeth Sandel goes into the known science of concussions. Highly recommended if you've had one. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987418