Brain Fog x Fatigue = Say What?

The longer one takes interferon, the more significant the cognitive and memory deficits become. It’s a gradual process whose creeping nature means that you some definite “oh crap,” moments can pop up and catch you unawares. The farther into a task you go in any one day, the more like you are to be hit with a OC moment.

The organization I work for puts on a big used book sale every year. Picture a large airplane hanger with 550 banquet tables and 400,000 books open for sale for 5 days to a total of 12,000 customers. This requires some high level organization to pull off successfully, which is why the people who know us are annually astonished that we can do it.

It also means an early start the first day to make sure the logistics are all mapped out (literally) before the army of volunteers and the truckloads of tables and books start to arrive. I was there at 6:30 a.m. to mark out the floor of the hangar for table and book placement. This involves chalk, long tape measures and lots of walking; as in 20 trips up and down the 600 foot building and lots of side-to-side walking, and conferences, and rechecking, etc. By about 10:00 a.m, my dogs were barking and my brain was fogging. I noticed that I was having trouble reading my map and making calculations on my tape measure. I had to mark a 48-foot length of tables on the floor and I was standing at the 59 foot mark on my tape measure. I could not for the life of my figure out that 59 plus 48 equals 107 feet. I made enough wrong marks on the floor (which I did a bad job of scuffing out) that the volunteers had to track me down and make me show them where the damn tables were supposed to go. Suddenly, I just couldn’t think clearly. Taking a break helped a bit as did water, a snack and periodic rests, but once the brain fog started, the rest of the day was not a good one for our hero.

Twelve hours of sleep helped, but another long day the next day meant that I needed another ten hours of sleep today, a three hour nap in the afternoon and restricting myself to menial tasks around the house. Ten hours more tonight and I should be ready to exhaust myself again tomorrow.

Of course I will be most aware of my situation and be extra careful to rest adequately and not overextend myself in stressful situations, of course…