Also,as far as brain fog goes I can't remember much about my nursing. I can't remember anything about last week. Lol it is pitiful.

I used to have awful brain fog. I couldn't read, write, study, speak very much without brain pain and the fog getting worse. I was supposed to be teaching English as a Second language....ha ha I don't know how I did that! I think because my students couldn't realize when I was making mistakes with my English.

I found that when energy was down brain fog was higher and energy was up less brain fog and speaking ability going up and down like that. Anyhow good news is that brain fog can go away! I've been living without brain fog for some years, although speaking ability going up and down depending on tiredness.

How did brain fog go away? As far as I could tell there were 2 things. Treatment for sleep was first. After that finding food sensitivities. After eliminating food that I was sensitive too, fog was gone. If I ate those foods, quickly brain fog would come again until they were out of my system. In my case I didn't take medicine for pain only for sleep, I think this made it easier to figure out what caused misery and eliminate such.

It sounds like lots of RNs get Fibro/CFS. I think a break would be very good for recovery. I didn't want to stop teaching and continued, but if I could do again I would take a year off. I lost my job the past year and then via overdoing it, ..I had a downswing and couldn't work. Now I'm not working. Now I can see how useful this non working time is for health. It would have been better if I took a year off from teaching, before rather than now. Something to ponder. I am familiar with the life of a nurse due to teaching English at nursing university and years of going to the hospital...

Brain fog can go away. Restorative sleep is key one and in my case eliminating food sensitivities was key 2. I'm guessing that many people with brain fog don't know that they may also have food/chemical sensitivities. A Nutrapathic Dr.can help with this, this site can too. To start wheat/gluten needs to be eliminated....our gut has a strong connection to our brain. If I ingest wheat or other food that I am sensitive too, brain fog will quickly arrive even though I haven't had it for some years. I have found that memory was the last thing to improve. Depending on tiredness and if I need to eat spoken language goes up and down!

I work in pharmacy so I completely get you! It's a vicious circle....take meds to try to relieve pain or suffer with the pain. Either way the brain fog sets in as I feel we don't get the rest we need and being in pain all the time takes your focus away. Its hard not being the same person we were before this. Hugs to you and your family as they see us at our worse.

I changed from an inpatient to outpatient nurse. More paperwork, hardly any meds to give. Hectic enough to blame any mistakes on being "too busy"