A very stressful neuropsychological evaluation

Yesterday was an interesting day, to say the least. I took the day off from work. In the afternoon, I had about four hours of neuro psychological evaluation. I will try my best to explain what it was like for me to go through this testing. These are some of the things that I had to do as part of the testing.

The tester verbally said a list of words (I think that there were about fifteen or more). Then I was asked to remember as many as I could in any order. As she read me these words, I was concentrating on remembering the first three words. I know that if I just kept trying to remember too many of them, they would all be gone from my memory. I think the first time I did this; I got the first three words and I couldn’t remember anything else. She did this several times with the same group of words. Each time, she asked me to tell her the words that I could remember, even if I had already told her them. I don’t think that I got more than five words correct. She did this activity with a second list of words and I don’t think that I did any better.

Another activity that I did was to copy a simple drawing from a paper in front of me. This was easy enough for me to accomplish until the tester changed it a bit. Now I was shown the picture for a short time, then it was taken away. Then I was asked to copy it. This was a little challenging for me to do. I did this several times with different drawings.

I was also given a piece of paper which almost looked like a dot-to-dot picture but this one really didn’t make a picture. The first paper had uppercase letters on it and they were mixed up on the paper. I needed to draw a line from the dot below A and connect them in order until I got to the finish, which was P. The next paper had upper case letters and numbers on it. My task was to connect the dots alternating from A to one to B to two. This was a little challenging for me to do, but I think that I did this okay.

There was also a piece of paper with black dots on it and some were colored in and some were not. There were around ten dots that were in a square. My task was to connect four dots, by drawing four lines and making a shape. Sometimes I was asked to connect filled in dots and sometimes the ones that weren’t filled in. There were a lot of squares on the paper and lots of rows, but there was a time limit and I wasn’t able to finish much more than one row, which I think had about six squares on it. I was also asked to make each shape different! This was a little challenging for me to complete!

I was shown a piece of paper and asked to read the squares according to their color. So, if I saw a yellow square, I would say yellow etc. Then I had to read color words on a paper. I was told not to read the word, but say the color ink that it was typed in. For example, the color word red would be in green ink, I would be expected to say green and not read the word red. This was definitely another challenging task for me to do. I think the last paper in this group also had some words in a box. I was told that if the color word was in a box, then I had to read the word. So, it went like this: green (but this is in red ink) blue (this word is in a box.) This should have been read like this” red, blue. I would need to read this as fast as I could without making mistakes. I was very slow doing this because it really messed with my brain!

At some point, I was asked to tell her what words I had remembered from the first list. I think that I only remembered four or five words. I was also asked to look at a paper with some illustrations on it. I was supposed to pick one that I had seen before, but none of them looked familiar to me and that just made me sad! Tears started streaming down my face! It was just too much for me to deal with! A short time later, I was able to compose myself and complete the testing.

One of the questions that I was asked was this: “what do gasoline and food have in common?” I told her that I didn’t know the answer, but I told her that I need gas in my car, so I can go get the food. I was also shown pictures of a different object on each page and I had to name what they were. I think that I did well with this task.

I was verbally told some number stories and I had to figure them out in my head. I could ask her to repeat each story only once, which I sometimes did. This was a task that I was able to do until it got much harder. I have never been able to do this much math in my head and yesterday was no different. 124 divided by seven was something like one of the problems. I let her know that I was never able to solve this in my head.

There were also blocks that were red and white. I had to take the blocks and make them look like the pattern on a card. I think that I did pretty well in the beginning, but then they were too complicated for me to do and a couple of times I couldn't really figure it out.

During the end of our session, the tester got a booklet and papers and, on the binder, it said “language tests”. I don’t think that they really tested too much. As I remember it, she took a piece of paper that had different color lines on it. She handed me the paper and gave me specific directions to do with it. She asked me to fold it on the red line, unfold it, flip the paper over fold it on the blue line, put in in my lap, take it out of my lap, unfold it, then hand it to her. I think that I was successful in doing these things, so she moved onto something else. She also showed me different cards with words on it. I was asked to explain what the words meant. Some I could answer and some I could not.

The stress of knowing that on paper my brain just doesn't function like other people my age is very difficult. The fact that while I'm doing these tests and I don't think that I'm doing very well is upsetting to me. Yesterday, I was able to write this down soon after all my testing, but for some reason, today I can't make sense out of what I'm typing. Oh well! Tomorrow is another day!

It made me feel sad and frustrated when I didn't feel like I was doing well on these tests. I tried to do my best and I guess that is all that I could have done.

I think that it lasted for about 4-5 hours and it was brutal! I could tell when I wasn't doing well on the testing, when I wasn't able to figure something out and when I was confused. I cried through some of the testing! I sure hope that I don't have to do that again! The only advice that I can give is just try to relax as best as you can and tell the tester if you need a break.

I’m so happy that I was able to get this testing done on one visit. Overall, I was able to do some tests with hardly any problems, but some were very challenging for me to do. Next month, I will go back and the neuro phys. doctor will go over the results with me. Then a week later, I will follow up with my neurologist.