Transient global amnesia

I have seen a friend who has absences
They are a kind of epilepsy, where the person might just stare off into space, or carry out a mundane activity with no awareness or memory.

You do need tests. It might not be this but what you have said reminds me of this friend.
I do appreciate how worrying this i s. In the case of my friend he has not come to any harm but I do worry and check on him

I am not impressed with your GP. How does he know if it will happen or not again.
I think you should run this past another GP if you can.

Transient Global Amnesia is a rarely anything but a one-off pinkquartz. If you have it more than twice it is very unlikely to be a TGA. www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/transient-global-amnesia/symptoms-causes/syc-20378531

I had mine about 15 years ago. I was driving on a local town bypass at the time. During it I drove to the roundabout I intended to come off at, went right round it and back the way I came, back to a large roundabout some miles down the road, turned right and drove another 2 or 3 miles and was on a long linking slip road to the motorway when I gradually came to and wondered where I was. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes.

A friend had the same thing happened when he was chairing a Conference I was at. He did it without making any mistakes or errors, introduced speakers etc. He was a bit subdued, not his usual ebullient self, but nothing obviously wrong. His lasted for about 12 hours from 8.00 in the morning until 8.00 in the evening. His was over 10 years ago. He too was told it was a TIA and very likely to re-occur.

The article whose link I give above says there is a link with migraine and I have had migraine since childhood.

Transient global amnesia occurs when you kink the blood vessels in your neck and for a short time part of your brain is deprived of oxygen. My dad did this when cleaning out the U bend of a bathroom sink. Maybe you overstretched your neck in the jacuzzi? It has to be distinguished from a TIA( transient ischaemic attack or mini stroke) which needs treatment to stop it recurring. TGA is usually a one off although may occur again if you adopt an odd position!

Thankyou for your comments. My gp thought it was stress related but as I go to the swimming pool to de stress, I can’t see this being the case. And why have I had two attacks in the swimming pool? Very strange and disquieting. We’re off on holiday at the end of next week and I really think I need a break. It’s a creepy feeling to know I lost at least 45 minutes of my life.

Hugo007 I know a woman, also a keen swimmer, by acquaintance and she had something similar happen and it had to do with the swimming (she had extensive tests). I'm sorry I can't be more specific, and I know you have experienced this at another time, but it might be worth considering. I Googled and found these articles:

www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/went-swim-lost-years-worth-memories/

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/30/cold-water-swimming-gave-me-amnesia-experience

Welcome to GN BTW

Thank you all very much. It helps to talk about this. I live in France and most of my friends are scattered far and wide. None here unfortunately. I’ll look at the links some of you have sent me. Must say the kink in the neck seems a possibility as I always swim breast stroke with my head quite far back. Who knows ?!

I just noticed that in my last post I put TIA in the penultimate paragraph where I meant TGA. As mumofmadboys says a TIA is something very different and more serious.

Monica

my point was how can her GP possibly know when she has not yet had the tests or diagnosis ?

I did not say it would reoccur or not. The GP is not speaking wisely.

This happened to Dr Michael Mosely this Summer when he was swimming in Cornwall.
His wife thought that he had, had a stroke but apparently it was brought on by the cold water.
Op, Google Dr Michael Mosely amnesia.

A friend's husband was diagnosed with this. They said all would be back to normal within 24 hours. It wasn't so a week or so later he had a brain scan (can't remember whether it was a CAT or MRI or some other sort of scan) and he'd had a bleed in the brain so it was actually a mini-stroke, not GTA. It was a small bleed but a bleed nonetheless. Because his mobility wasn't affected it was misdiagnosed.
He's OK now but it took him quite a while to recover although he's on the correct medication to help prevent it happening again. If it's happened before hassle for a scan.

...what gave it away as a mini-stroke was although he knew who is wife was, he didn't recognise his next-door neighbour, or anyone he hadn't known for a long time.

Scan on 4 December. Think that’s quite a long wait actually but no choice. Some things are wonderful here, results of routine blood tests within hours but something like a brain scan has to wait two or three weeks. Shall have a few days holiday, keep away from swimming pools for a while