September 25, 2013 13:00 — 1 Comment
A Vacation from Self: Writer Recounts Experience with Transient Global Amnesia
In a piece for New York Times Magazine, writer Tom Fields-Meyer recalls his brief bout with transient global amnesia, an unexplained short-term memory loss that, among other recent occurrences, caused him to forget what he ate for breakfast that morning . He writes, ” The tests confirm that my brain is normal, but that doesn’t help me shake the disconcerting feeling that we are all just one misfiring neuron away from forgetting who the president is or what we did last night or what transpired in our most intimate moments. In an instant, I had become like my grandmothers in their last years, floating through life, uttering the same old phrases as if for the first time.” Click here for the full story.
I am so glad to find an article that is current on Tga. 8/27/13 I was hospitalized for two days with this diagnosis. It happened at the gym, and my husband was called to come to get me. I am attributing this condition to the stressful events that happened in my work. This has affected me emotionally to the extent that I am on leave from work. I was diagnosed and then told, “go back to work and forget (haha) that this happened. Go on with your life.” I guess the most traumatic part of the event was waking up in hospital by myself not knowing why I was there. My husband had gone home to sleep after answering the same questions for six hours. I am afraid that it will happen again even though I know it says it won’t. I feel that the medical field needs to treat the emotional aftermath of this condition. My questions asked over and over – How did we get here? Do I have Alzheimer’s? It’s a good thing my daughters wedding wasn’t the day before, as I lost a whole day and half of my life.
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