I'm 67 years old and quite heavy, but physically fitter than many contemporaries. I love hiking, most often on my own, five miles more or less. A couple of weeks ago, I failed to turn up at 8 am to a location half an hour's drive away, to pick up my grandson for one of our usual days together. My daughter in law phoned me and didn't like the vague confusion she heard. She thinks I'd woken from a deep sleep.

 

The evidence pieced together, however, points to my having got up, made a pot of tea as usual, but never poured it. Or was it ‘as usual’? Or much earlier, to walk out and watch the Summer Solstice sunrise?  I don’t know. My son’s wife and I exchanged several phone calls and she encouraged me to walk a few paces round to my landlord, who reports me coming over upset at how confused I felt, very upset that I'd just learned that my son had switched schools, was now Head Teacher (Principal), and I'd never been told nor celebrated. Of course, I'd been first to know and we had celebrated, four or five months ago!!

 

Once the episode was over (I recall looking at the clock and noting the time at about 2.30 pm,) and, when my son was explaining what I hadn't 'remembered', that area of confusion seemed vaguely familiar, as if I'd lived through it many, many months before, and there's a rather horrid similar 'memory' that I didn't know whether or not I was looking after my grandson and couldn't find my way home (our way home?) across fields and paths - I'll never know if that was another brief, real episode or had formed part of my confusion this time, worrying about what I was doing and where I was and its implications. I was apparently saying over and again that I didn’t need an ambulance and had had this happen five years before, in Argentina, and that it was a TGA.

 

In retrospect, I seem to remember a three-mile walk to and from the nearest village for something the day before, very clearly, nothing really after that, and no-one was interfacing with me (that we know of), so who knows when the episode started, but I think it was after I made the pot of tea, probably at about 6.40 am. - if so it lasted about eight hours and I have no recollection of any part of those. Not my son’s wife’s calls, first responders, ambulance drive, Accident & Emergency Department, my son meeting the ambulance and being with me all that time - then it was over. He says I knew him, I didn’t remember my 9-month-old granddaughter’s existence at all, or his new job and they were my repetitious questions; I couldn’t retain the answers.

 

I've been a bit fuzzy-headed, close to tears occasionally, since, and tired. However, I have been swimming, hiking, grandson caring, etc, etc and yesterday - PING! - completely clear-headed and my energy back.

 

Weird things, TGA's. This was my second, the first one five years ago. I still greatly regret 'missing' my kayak adventure of a lifetime in 2013. I'm still assured there is no greater chance of getting another, BUT…

 

Oh, and the sandals?? Yes, you guessed it! I bought NEW SANDALS in the couple of days before the second, and on the day of the first. None between.

 

New Sandals vs other trigger theories:

 

Could thyroid levels being wrong cause amnesia for a few hours?

¿Podrían los niveles de tiroides son causa amnesia mal para un par de horas?

 

Could low blood sugar levels cause amnesia for a few hours?  

Podría niveles bajos de azúcar en la sangre causan amnesia durante unas horas?

 

Could having had too little to drink have caused amnesia for a few hours?

Podría haber tenido muy poco para beber haber causado amnesia durante unas horas?...

 

Answers in Argentina in 2013: “NO, we do not know what but you could have eaten too much or too little - it shouldn’t affect.”  The English Professor of Neurology answered much the same. Tests all show nothing, in the 2018 event tests also being carried out during the episode.

 

I never did like the sandals, though they fitted, and eventually, I decided they were part of a certain amount of Post Traumatic Stress with the other part being that swearing woman. I’m not an experienced kayaker; I probably shouldn’t have paddled off on my own with the sun setting and the lake getting its evening choppy mode on, but hey ho!

 

This year I can find no clue and the only post-event trauma is that I could possibly have forgotten my first female offspring’s existence or my son’s Headship. That stuns me. PS Six months later, I am still affected by that, not as easy to shrug off as the first, not enough is known. I do like my June 2018 sandals!