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Post by Amtram on Feb 11, 2014 20:33:09 GMT -5
It was mostly him just asking questions and taking my history and such, and he actually appreciated me bringing along the 18,000 word recap of my brain surgery journey. I have to schedule the full battery of tests for later, but I had a couple of surveys to fill out today. He told me in advance, since I did them after our appointment, "don't think too much about your answers," but it didn't help. Rating scales of 1-5, simple single-line questions? How the heck do you answer those when they're questions about you?
Anyone else ever get a neuropsych workup? Did it help?
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Post by patentpope on Feb 11, 2014 21:03:57 GMT -5
I haven't, but my psychiatrist has suggested it as a possible next step. I know I'm not much help. But I'd love to hear more about your experience, since I may be going through it myself sometime soon.
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Post by Amtram on Feb 13, 2014 10:01:19 GMT -5
My appointment for my full battery of tests is scheduled for the fourth. It's frustrating to have to wait that long, but it's five hours of testing, and two different doctors will be administering the different parts. The nice thing, too, is that this doctor is not peddling this as a diagnostic procedure for any psychiatric conditions - some doctors do, and I don't think it's ethical to tell people that a battery of tests like these that cost a fair chunk of change are necessary for a diagnosis. (In fact, the doctor noted that even if I hadn't told him I have ADHD, he would have been able to guess. . .)
What they're trying to do is establish where I am with my attention and linguistic abilities, and a few neuromotor things. . .I don't know what all will be included until I actually get there. But I know from the research I did on my impairments before surgery that there are tests that can determine which brain area might be damaged. Depending on what functions are impaired, the therapy will be aimed towards re-learning in order to create alternative neural pathways, or discovering alternative ways to do things that are affected by the functional impairment.
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Post by patentpope on Feb 18, 2014 11:47:16 GMT -5
I've been seeing my psychiatrist for three or four years, and she only recently suggested it as a possibility. We've been having trouble getting hold of exactly what's causing my issues, and she thinks that a neuropsychological assessment might help us narrow things down. Still in the theoretical stage now.
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Post by Amtram on Feb 18, 2014 12:21:05 GMT -5
Neuropsych is sometimes a good way of narrowing down a diagnosis and ruling things out. It's not so good on its own as a diagnostic tool, but when your condition is complex, it can be helpful.
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Post by owling on Feb 19, 2014 16:32:30 GMT -5
Good luck! Tell us how it went!
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Post by Amtram on Mar 4, 2014 14:56:22 GMT -5
It was long. There were a lot of tests that looked at my memory from a number of different approaches and my visual and auditory perception. I can't tell a lot about the tests, mainly because not knowing what the tests are like is pretty important for people who might be taking the tests themselves at some point. I will tell you, though, that my pattern recognition when it didn't involve numbers sucked, big-time. And now I want to lie down for a nap.
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Post by Amtram on Mar 4, 2014 17:50:20 GMT -5
Oh, and I also planned ahead (OMG!!! How did that happen?!?!?) and printed and cut a bunch of promotional cards. The first round of tests were given to me by a different doctor, and she was very excited to share them with her patients and check this place out. So I am a happy camper.
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Post by Amtram on Mar 5, 2014 16:13:50 GMT -5
What I did want to share - one part of the evaluation involved listening to a story and trying to repeat it back immediately, then later. I sucked at that, big-time. I needed prompts to remember almost everything. Another test involved putting a puzzle together blindfolded. I completed it three times and thought I did pretty well - then they asked me what the shapes were and where they went in the puzzle. I think I got four of them. I have a feeling those two are going to turn out to be pretty significant in the grand scheme of things.
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Post by owling on Mar 11, 2014 14:07:19 GMT -5
But what do these results mean? How's your recovery? Do the doctors have a plan for your recovery? (Sorry if I answer so late, I haven't figured out how to tell if someone replied in the threads in which I post)
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Post by Amtram on Mar 11, 2014 19:40:41 GMT -5
I find out Friday afternoon. I've had plenty of time to ruminate about it, so it'll be nice to find out for certain. Well, not necessarily definitely for certain, but with more clarity.
I ran into my kids' former music teacher, told him about this and that, mentioned the surgery, and he (like so many others) said that I seemed perfectly fine. There's a difference between the way people tell you you seem fine when you tell them you have ADHD and they way they tell you you seem fine when you've had brain surgery. Funny thing, though, my emotional reaction was very similar. Outside, I said "Thank you," because I know it was meant as supportive, but inside I was fairly upset that I was saying I have a problem and someone was saying (but not really saying) that I didn't, not really. It stirs up the mental pot a bit.
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Post by Amtram on Mar 21, 2014 16:53:19 GMT -5
So the results were not all that different from what I expected. Poor verbal memory, meh on abstract reasoning memory, mostly mediocre on stuff I knew I was having problems with already. The one thing that stood out was impulsivity and anxiety. These weren't measured in my score, but in how I actually took the tests. Like I was running a race, ya know? The main thing that showed I was impaired was the contrast between intelligence and performance, because my performance was below what would be expected based on my intelligence.
Behavioral therapy starts up in a couple of weeks. If my insurance company lets me, there is cognitive therapy that will help me learn to overcome some of the specific problems I'm having with my speech and spatial awareness, maybe neurofeedback to learn how to curb my impulsiveness (I don't have much hope for that, to be honest. . .even Adderall barely put a dent in that!)
The good thing is that visually I may have some problems that bother me because I didn't have them before - but my visual perception isn't impaired enough for me to worry about. I was afraid I'd have to stop driving or something like that. If you don't drive around here, it's like solitary confinement. So I'm not where I want to be, but I'm not a danger to others. Woohoo!
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Post by owling on Mar 25, 2014 4:47:22 GMT -5
Congrats! I'm glad there's no major impairment from the brain surgery. I mean, I know that issues with speech and spatial awareness are serious, but I do believe you can overcome them. I know people who suffered strokes or head injuries and, even though the damage was considerable, on all aspects, they recovered very very well- so I'm not worried about you at all anymore. I guess the anxiety and impulsiveness stink, but then again, you always had to deal with them because of the ADHD, so there's nothing new. I do hope you manage to get cognitive therapy or whatever kind of therapy you need.
I think that with people's reaction to ADHD and brain surgery, the issue could be the same: if they can't see it, the problem doesn't exist or is too small to be taken serious. But then again, the words "brain surgery" freak everyone out, but they abstain from showing it to you (I know I would).
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Post by Amtram on Mar 25, 2014 5:41:06 GMT -5
Oh, I have no internal filter. I tell everyone. Heh. Thanks for the words of encouragement.
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