Neurologist Assessment

Hi Belinda

Thank-you for reaching out to us.  Cognitive changes after stroke are common.  It can affect your thinking in many different ways and to varying degrees.  This can include memory difficulties, changes to your ability to maintain attention, planning and sequencing of tasks, and problem solving.  You might also find that other factors such as fatigue and stress can impact your ability to process information. 

You have taken the right steps to seek assessment and to understand the changes that you are experiencing.  Your GP and neurologist are important to ensure that you are medically well.  Other health professionals that can conduct comprehensive cognitive tests are neuropsychologists and occupational therapists.  A neuropsychologist can work with you if you are having trouble with your memory or thinking.  They can help to provide insight into how the stroke has affected your ability to make decisions.  It may be recommended that you see an occupational therapist, who can help you to develop strategies to support you with managing your activities and nurture recovery.

It is also important to acknowledge that stroke is life changing for many people.  It is completely normal to feel worried, stressed or even anxiety about the changes you have been through.  A clinical psychologist can help with feelings of sadness, grief, loss, anger or frustrations.  They can help you to gain new insights, learn to see yourself differently and support you through your recovery.

Speak to your local GP, who can help to co-ordinate referrals to neuropsychology, occupational therapy and clinical psychology. Cognitive difficulties after stroke is complex and sometimes requires a multifaceted approach.

Here is more information for you to read:

Thinking and perception after stroke

Depression and anxiety after stroke

Counselling after stroke

You can also speak to a health professional on StrokeLine 1800 787 653.

Regards

Carol, StrokeLine

Hi Belinda,

Here are some more comments for you:

Toni Arfaras I had a recent discussion with a neuropsych about how they didn't know you prestroke so don;t know what you were capable of prior to the event. So it may have been that prior to your stroke you were functioning 'above average' whereas now you are at the 'norm' but of course you are aware of the difference.

Also remember that these test are conducted in ideal conditions, with no noise or distractions. If they were conducted in a 'real' environment the results, at least for myself, would be very different.

Leigh Smith My exact thoughts about the pre stroke performance. My thoughts that they can expect too much from us which can cause us a bit of stress etc.

Linda Johnston Toni Arfaras YES!!

Rachael Louise Davis I have suffered memory loss, sentence construction and cognitive loss since my stroke in dec 2017. It’s all about retraining your brain and finding a process to help with memory. I have to write everything down or else I’ll forget it (it can be gone the minute the conversation is over) plus taking friends/family to appointments, meetings.

PhilandNarelle Torpy Since my stroke, it is about retraining you brain just like we work on the rest of our bodies. We need to relearn and increase focus, practiced makes perfect. My has gradually improved . It has been 4 years since my stroke.

Dean Smart Don't believe everything the "professionals" tell you. The last neuro bloke I saw said there is "nothing wrong" Nothing besides the fatigue, thoughts of finishing it all, the hemienopia...I could go on.....

Colin Coulson couldn't agree more the last time l seen a neuro he told me all my balance issues were in my head, so l scratched said head and walked out none the wiser

Leigh Smith I agree...After each time of seeing a neuro, I came away feeling a bit disappointed within myself and felt a bit pressured to perform well. I too have a bit of memory problem and a bit of difficulty in speaking the correct word and even whilst writing, not forming the "most amazing sentences" I once did lol!

Helen Vasicek it is not always you with the memory problem, sometimes it is them, to prove it write it down then ask them the question again and 9 times out of 10 the answer is not the same. you are an easy target for some do not put yourself down, the biggest problem is they say it is you because you are the person who had the stroke. I have caught many people out this way believe in yourself just keep some proof for future references. in real life experience. the reality of a problem does not necessarily found in a reference book, it is found in real life experience

Linda Johnston Sure there's anxiety when searching for words or trying to remember correctly the important list of things to do! But things do get easier in time. Sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back. Go easy on yourself 🙂

Craig Selby My memory is terrible after my stroke it lets me down a lot ,

Kim Jackson Craig Selby It sounds like you are pretty vision-impaired, but you are still determined to persist through it enough to write here, so i am just sending you a big brassy !Salut! cause i reckon you deserve it. Onya. k

Suzanne Forte 3 TIA's and I definitely feel that a part of my past memories are blurry.

Kane Brad Tracey Its been 6yrs since my parietal stroke/Brain haemorrhage & I have bad memory loss when i’m tired,especially, i get fatigued a lot as my left side still gets numb/pins & needles/dead weight with no sensory in my finger & toe tips /palms & bottom of feet…See More

Adrian O'Malley Was it a Neuropsychological Assessment instead as that would test memory? Both Neuro and Neuropsycy assessments are about the brain but are very different things. Just checking.

Barnes John Vera They said the same to my husband. I know & he knows different.

He said the best he can describe it is like this; imagine a blackboard with white dots... the white dots - represent his memory... it takes something to trigger it and doesn’t always remember all of it... combines short term memory stuff...

And if he sees an old photo of something he doesn’t remember he gets a massive headache trying to recall it, thinking about it...

So definitely something not right. They the ‘stroke specialist’ don’t know everything.

Cara Moran A rehab consultant told me that intelligent people will notice, and be more bothered, by small changes

Lee McKenna I work really hard on my memory and I still regularly turn up to medical. Appointments. On the. Wrong day Even though I set up my calendar on my I phone be kind to yourself we all do the best we can

Meryl Stanhope This is my experience following a heart attack and open heart surgery. It is frustrating.

Chris Turner I confess to having this problem - I have found that it's a concentration issue - e..g. I will discuss an upcoming doc appointment with my daughter (who usually attends with me since I sometimes have trouble remembering details) and after my minor stoke, found I could never remember what time we had agreed to meet before appointment. I could remember the discussion but not the final answer. It seems silly and annoyed me a lot. Her solution was to text me at the end of the discussion as to the date/time of our meeting. The devil was in the details for me. For some reason, if I concentrated (as in a test) my memory was good - but in normal day to day stuff, unless I focussed the info "didn't stick". I now use my phone calander and my daughter (god bless her) sends me txt msg of important stuff. That's just my experience and I think you just need to recognise your limitations and take some corrective action that works for you.

Thank you all for responding to my query about Neurology Assessment.  I'm still gathering my thoughts and trying to make sense of them after the appointment on Friday.  I had my brother attend with me as I tend to lose focus and my concentration sucks after very short periods of time.  We still haven't spoken about the appointment yet - had to give my brain a rest (totally overwhelmed and exhausted for days after that). I was thrown when told my memory was really good - my initial thought being, okay - this test is only relevant for this short period of time, in an office with questions and tests that aren't indicative of the routine things I would be doing on a day to day basis - therefore not particularly useful in the bigger picture.  Forgive my rambling explanation, I have a hard time putting my thoughts in order while attempting to make sense of things (irritating at the best of times).  Retaining information (new and old) is an issue for me.  Having said that, I can remember things from when I was a tiny tot or totally irrelevant things (memories) from situations and social events from a two minute conversation many years ago (not too useful really) yet still lose track of conversations (while I'm having them) - forget information from a week ago or days ago, sequences of events and timelines for activities (e.g. when did we go to... or what brought on that particular chain of events, etc).  I find myself having conversations with myself and usually end up going around in circles and most of the time going off on a tangent and forgetting what the initial subject of conversation was.  I've now gotten to a stage where I have to tell myself to "shut-up" when I now I'm about to go off on one of my internal dialogues that lead to nowhere - very tiring.  All of this (and much, much more) has only come about since the stroke.  Not really interested in depression and anxiety as I see that purely as a response to frustration and confusion more than anything - I don't feel unhappy as such and "anxiety" is only brought on when I find myself in situations where my limitations in thought processing make things challenging.  I'm now waiting for six months for the Neuropsychology Assessment - I have no concept of time anyway, so hopefully that six months will pass quickly and I'll have a better idea of where and how to focus my therapy.  Anyway.., thank you for listening and for making me feel comfortable enough to share some things that only those who've been in a similar situation can possibly understand.  Thanks Diana for forwarding these.  Belinda

Hi Belinda,

A great post about the reality of what it feels like to need to attend such scary and daunting assessments. Because I sure found any mention of these assessments super intimidating. The results of these tests to be looked at by someone who didn't really know me? Yeah - just make it all the more harder to adjust.

So - with all this in mind.

Can I be of help in anyway?

Would an open conversation about how you are feeling about cognitive stuff/memory stuff on any given day  on EnableMe help do you think? 

Or even trying to write what it is really bugging you about stuff,- and just putting it out there. There is no judgement here. 

I do remember those photography and recovery forums which Marcus began, and how the continual flow of posts seemed to go really well. 

It is a horrible situation to be in, waiting, waiting for the result of some weird test result to let you know what you need to be doing. So in the me

Boy - could I talk a lot about that!

Yours in recovery and healing

Sue xxoo

Thanks Sue, I'm fine for now - still getting out every day and taking my happy snaps of all things river, feathered friends and nature related.  I don't seem to mind so much the limitations I have with this cognitive stuff.  I guess really, all that I want is to be understood by those around me - the people in life who matter (don't really give a rats about the professionals myself).  If I have a plan after my assessment to find things that suit me better vocationally - I'll be more than happy with that.  Always nice to know that you're here for me Sue - much appreciated.  Belinda

Hi Belinda,

Good stuff.

Very glad you have posted about this as many people would relate to what you are saying.

Happy photo taking. :-)

Sue xo