Since pumping my body full of chemotherapy chemicals I have noticed a lot of the symptoms of what is known as “chemo brain”. It is like a heavy fog over your mind that you just cannot shake. Like if you have been awake for days and just can’t pull your thoughts together, or when you take strong cold medicine and can’t bring your head out of the clouds to focus on anything and it feels like your ears are ringing and your brain is stressed. I have memory loss, difficulty concentrating, inability to focus. It is a very real and very difficult issue.
I cant keep a thought long enough to process it. I can see gaps in my mental connections. I can’t understand why, but i see it happening. I was a great student in school and especially loved math. Now I have a significant loss of mental ability in math, even the basic concepts don’t make sense any more.
I especially have confusion, which is sometimes frightening. I become disoriented and have lost my way home in my own neighborhood. Driving around I always find my way home, but it is uncomfortable when there’s other people in the car with me. I also now have difficulty with times and dates and knowing how much time is passing. I don’t recognize faces of people I know. I use what my kids and I call “Mad Lib” words – when I am trying to speak, I use “any noun” instead of the one I was trying to say. I might say apple when I mean banana or monkey when I mean giraffe.