Dress well for the appointment and stay composed and calm.

Give the doc-shrink a typed list of dates and descriptions of your symptoms but let him/her call the seizure a seizure.Same goes for examples of your cognitive disfunction--examples and dates---noting the frequency and how they interfere with functioning.

Don't interrupt him/her,

Add to your list documentation about how you enjoy the things you've always enjoyed, that you don't have new sleep problems or social isolation (ie any symptoms of depression).

That's all I can think of. Remember, it probably will go better than you fear it will.

Good luck and let us know!

I should add this isn't a social security exam. It's being done at a university center.

However, Shakota, my goose may be cooked since I've had trouble sleeping since I was a teenager and it's only become worse. And the fact that I have trouble getting the right words out of my mouth and I feel so mentally scattered has tended to socially isolate me. I think if I could remember things better I might be depressed. When I had the seizure two years ago is when things got bad cognatively.

I'll try to type up some sort of list, but I'm feeling pretty scattered today, so I'll hope I can come up with something.

Thanks.

Yeah I have to make an appointment. I can understand. I had bad experience also. I had a great phsych team before I moved now I need to find some one, Good luck I hope all goes well.

Ann, when I had neuro-psych testing done, it was actual testing to check my cognitive and memory skills. Is this what you are having? If so, what I recommend is that you go at your own pace. My testing would have taken 8 hours, but there was no way that I could mentally or physically tolerate that, so I let them test me for as long as I could concentrate, which turned out to be about 90 minutes. It took five appointments, I think, before I was finally finished. Let me know if this is the type of testing you are having done, and if it is, I will try to provide you with more information about the testing that was done.

It sounds like I go for an initial interview of an hour and a half and then it will be decided if I need more testing and what kind of testing.

I haven't been taken seriously, so I'll spend as much time being tested as I have to. I just want someone to understand that I'm struggling.

I don't know if they will give me some short tests during the hour and a half.

I picked out my outfit. I've gained weight so that took a bit of doing.

Good luck! Be yourself, and if that means you feel like crap, then if it were me, I would show it. If I am in so much pain and have so much fatigue, I do not worry about fixing my hair and make-up and dressing as if I am fine. Sadly, people seem to take one more seriously if they do not look as though everything is okay. People without an invisible illness just don't seem to get it. Since I'm not always here everyday, feel free to pm me if you want to reach me with any questions.

Well, maybe I'll wear my comfy pants instead of my fancy pants--and my sports bra instead of my bra of torture. But I'll be a country lady going into the big city.

Go comfy and stress over and over that your probelsm began with a seizure-like event when it comes to the cognitive issues, and ask if there's any chance you had a TIA or similar issue--- I don't know if you've had CT or MRI or EEG --- but it might get their attention if you use words like, "What if I had a stroke and nobody noticed?"

And write out the really important stuff you want to get them to know, so that if you get nervous or tired or whatever? It's on paper and you can hand it to them.... I find that helpful. Probably been suggested before but never hurts to re-emphasize.

And if you have to cry, cry. Even if they take that as a sign of depression, you can ask for referral to a psychiatrist who is also board-cert in Neuro to make that dx--- my psych has a board cert in neuro and it's hugely helpful in ruling out what is and is not doing what etc.

Good luck. Thoughts, prayers, hugs,
Leo

I went to the appointment yesterday, which was a long drive and a long appointment and I'm totally spent. At least my brain fog is documented, and a balance issue I didn't know I had. She wants me to have the huge testing, but since they don't have anything to offer me to improve the situation, I'm not sure of the point. (I have discovered that either prednisone or blood thinners (heperin & aspirin) help with the fog, but they are "too dangerous" even though I'm more than willing to accept the danger. They did send me home with a prescription for Zoloft, that is supposed to help cognition.

Thanks to everyone who took enough time to offer me some support with this. Sometimes, I can't read well enough or write well enough to offer people support.