I am a 63 year-old male living in Minnesota.  I’ve thought of myself as rather healthy most of my adult life.  However, in the last few years I’ve had a few challenges.  I’ve tried to stay in good shape, working out a few times a week for many years.  I eat reasonably well, but probably consume too much alcohol.  I was somewhat confident that I’d probably live a relatively long and healthy life.  I’m not so sure anymore.

 

TGA seems to be quite a mystery.  Let me share my timeline of events.  I had an episode in the spring of 2013.  At the time of the episode, I was alone at home, in the early evening, working on the computer.  Then all of a sudden something was wrong, I couldn’t remember some basic things, so I called my wife, and you know the rest.  I went to the hospital, had all kinds of tests, and the conclusion was TGA.   Even though it shook me, after a while I didn’t really worry about it, because I was told I’d probably never have another episode, and that there weren’t any real negative effects.  After reading about the alleged causes, I chalked it up to stress, because I was going through a very difficult period at work, along with some serious challenges at home.

 

A little more than five years later, in July 201 8 I had another episode.  It began in late afternoon, and I quickly recognized what it was. I apparently didn’t act noticeably differently, I supposedly wasn’t redundant with questions, so my wife didn’t notice anything. We had plans that evening, and I faked my way through it, before letting her know at the end of the night that I had another episode.  She wasn’t thrilled that I hid the issue, but that’s understandable.  I did not tell my wife that I was experiencing a TGA episode because I didn’t want to waste my time and money going to the hospital again for tests that would show nothing.  I can’t really attribute that episode to anything in particular – home was still a source of stress, but this had been a constant state of affairs since it started back around 2013.

 

About three months ago, in late August 2019 I had my third episode.  I was across the country with friends in Northern Virginia, playing golf, and all of a sudden, I knew something was wrong.  I felt really strange.  I didn’t immediately connect it to TGA.  Instead, I thought it might have something to do with dehydration, as I was seeking something to drink for about an hour or so.  I was able to complete the golf round.  We grabbed a beverage afterwards and then I went to a party.  I have very few memories of that party.  People around me could tell something was wrong, and I was able to figure it out (again) and tell them I was having a TGA episode.  Somehow I allowed my buddies to talk me into a hospital visit.  Again, a waste of time…  The cause of my episode was easy for me to define.  As I mentioned earlier, the internet identifies stress / distress as a potential cause of TGA.  Home continues to be a major source of stress for me.  In addition, I had been working on a project that was extremely stressful.  At the airport that morning, I received an email that really aggravated me relative to that project.  Later in the day, the episode.  Coincidence?  Probably not, but who knows for sure.

   

I have had all the typical tests, during and after my hospital visits (episodes one and three).  Everything clean, all good.  The memory loss is an obvious problem.  Another indication of a problem was a verbal test that the neurologist performed after my last episode.  He had me perform some mental exercises – start at 100 and count backwards by 7, asked me my birthday, and so forth.   I handled all of that stuff well, except for one item - at the beginning he gave me five things to remember, he mentioned the five, and then asked me at the end of our session to repeat the five.  I couldn’t remember any of them.

 

After the first two episodes, I believed that I returned to “normal” within a few days.  This latest episode has taken longer to recover from.  That bothers me.   

 

I mentioned earlier that I considered myself a pretty healthy individual before these TGA episodes.  However, I should mention some other health issues I have experienced, and some medications that I take or recently stopped.  Who knows what correlations may be defined down the road?

I’ve had sleep apnea for many years (I use a bipap).

I was diagnosed with anemia in March 2016 (which totally zapped my energy).

 

Medications:

A small daily dosage of amitriptyline to sleep (many years).

A moderate daily dosage of sertraline to help with possible depression (two years).

One baby aspirin daily (which coincidently I was taking for 15 years but stopped taking about 6 months ago – and have now restarted).

I used to take the statin Atorvastatin for cholesterol for fifteen years (which I stopped two months ago).

 

I have questioned my short-term memory for years.  I chalked it up to age.  Most of us probably do.  After reading all of the testimonials, and doing a fair amount of reflecting, my memory has to be affected by TGA.  It’s just not the same.  I’m also more anxious than “normal”.  I get aggravated more easily.  I don’t have the energy anymore.  I used to have big shoulders, I could balance a lot of things (multi-tasking), and that has changed.  I feel “inefficient” if that makes sense.  I have to write things down if there are multiple steps in a task (as opposed to memorizing them).  With three episodes, two in the last fourteen months, and all the stress that goes along with my family, I’m just not the same.  Only the last couple of months, after the last episode, have I tried to focus on slowing the heck down, and do the best I can to get my stress under control.  They tell me it’s ok to slow down, to take things less seriously, and to focus on me.  Sounds selfish, but it might be a life saver.

 

I find this whole challenge very interesting and extremely bothersome.  I feel positive about some of the information that has been posted about TGA on different sites – such as TGA isn’t considered serious, most people don’t have negative side effects, most of us won’t have repeat episodes, etc.  But… I don’t think this should be considered normal – how can it be?  After reading the testimonials that have been posted, how could anyone think this is ok?  There is clearly a lack of data, because there is insufficient information / research on this condition, which has resulted in the medical community being unable to help us.  It’s possible that at some point there will be some funding, effort, and focus.  Maybe not for some of us, but for others down the road.