Memory problems at work

This flare up of this lupus & sjogren's syndrome is driving me insane.  My memory is completely shot and now it's affecting work.   Going to work is not about the money, it's truly about keeping my hours up for the health insurance because at this stage in prognoses, I desperately need my health insurance.  One prescription alone is $1123.00 per month!  

No only do I have an auto-immune disease causing "brain fog"    I HAVE TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I have to wonder if the fact that I have prior brain injuries, is that compounding this brain fog as well??

With that said, I see the oncologist on Monday.  I hope there is something that he can do ti help correct this and allow me to continue working. :(

What Is Lupus Fog?

Lupus fog is a general name for the cognitive impairments that often appear with lupus, including concentration and memory problems, confusion, and difficulty expressing yourself. These cognitive problems are often worse during flares.

The good news: Lupus fog doesn’t usually get progressively worse, like dementia or Alzheimer's disease, says Lisa Fitzgerald, MD, a rheumatologist at the Lupus Center of Excellence at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Instead, memory issues will probably wax and wane, just like other lupus symptoms.

The exact cause of lupus fog is hard to pin down, experts say. In some cases, lupus can damage cells in the brain, leading directly to cognitive problems. However, in most cases other factors play a role, including fatigue, stress, and depression. Lupus fog is sometimes worse in people who also have fibromyalgia. Although it's possible that side effects from drugs such as NSAIDs or steroids could worsen lupus fog, experts say that switching medicines rarely resolves the problem.

While researchers study possible causes of lupus fog, Orosz focuses on coping strategies that help people deal with it.

"When you're a person dealing with lupus fog, you don't worry that much about what's causing it," says Orosz. "What you care about is learning how to work around it."

In Sjögren’s syndrome the whole nervous system can be affected, but here we will focus primarily on the Central Nervous System (CNS), which consists of the brain and the spinal chord. There are many things that can happen in the CNS, causing such symptoms as motor or sensory hemiparesis (one-sided weakness or numbness usually occurring in the face, arm or leg), slurred or garbled speech, encephalopathy (non-specific brain illness), recurrent aseptic meningitis (inflammation of the meninges, the coating that covers the brain and spinal chord, without the presence of infection), seizures, psychological difficulties such as depression, anxiety or panic attacks, bladder dysfunctions, or extrapyramidal disorders affecting the muscle movements.

Another way the CNS can be affected is by brain fog. This is a condition that most people are familiar with, and yet there is no medical term for it and it cannot be researched by putting ‘brain fog’ into an Internet search engine. The closest term would be ‘mild cognitive dysfunction,’ but this encompasses a wide spectrum of often subtle changes.