RECLAIMING MY BRAIN

I want to remind anyone reading this that this post is my experience only. 

A month ago, I could hardly talk with my new diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment.  It was a very frustrating visit with my neurologist and myself.  Having worked with elderly for the past several years and discussing their cognitive issues with them and their families it was very difficult to have that potential diagnosis affect me.  It is not so difficult to give up working in my position due to the work environment. 

It is difficult that the migraines are merely a symptom of the greater issue.  I am no longer taking Topamax and will be at least a month without anything except the Namenda and something for pain when I do have a headache.  I have had no negative side effects until I did get to the full dose.  With that was some muscle tightness, but that dissipated after a few days. 

Benefits I have observed.  I am not certain that anything is improving memory-wise, but the fog has lifted, which is hard to explain.  Within the first week of starting the Namenda I noticed a reduction of the severity of the headaches and as the dose increased, they even went away.  My functioning has been so much better.  I feel brighter, sharper and not weighed down by the pain in my head.  Friends have said that my speech is less pressured and more spontaneous.  This is very good.  I was having a lot of difficulty with word-finding even a month ago; this has been a problem for many years when headaches were really bad.  Some of my critical-thinking skills appear to be back as well. 

I did find out that my Neuro currently does NOT use the ICHD-II for diagnosing headaches.  I provided him the site for the manual, and he thanked me.  Previously when Teri had given me the link to the Namenda information I had also provided him with it and it appears he has followed up with checking out other resources.  When he started me on the Namenda he did not believe it would help with the headaches.  My visit with him yesterday was a very good one and I feel we are on the right track.  We also discussed reducing the amount of added glutamate in the diet, since it cannot be totally eliminated.  So, I will be eliminating the more highly processed foods that I have been using.  While he does not specialize in migraine disease itself, his primary area is in Stroke, TIAS and vascular-type dementias.  Since this is where the genetics have placed me at very high risk I feel comfortable in his care.  Although, he does need a little help in the compassion department when I get too emotional.