I Forgot: Brain Injury Awareness Month

I forgot...

The dog ate my homework...

Seriously, I have post concussive syndrome and my short term memory sucks...really sucks.  

It's only March 6 and I forgot my pledge to blog every day during March - Brain Injury Awareness Month.  I forgot because I didn't write it down and I went away for the weekend, thus changing my routine and turning my already scrambled short term memory even mushier than it was last week.  

Yeah, we all forget stuff sometimes.  It's part of being human.  It's normal.

This isn't normal.  This is dramatic.  I write the date and day of the week down several times each day.  Somehow the action of writing it, helps brand it into my brain.  

I get lost in familiar places while driving.  

I forget to turn off the gas oven.  I forget to blow out candles.   You know, potentially dangerous stuff that leaves me shaking.  

So I write lots of notes like "blow out candle" on yellow sticky notes.  Or I tie something around my finger.  Or I keep what looks like an obsessively detailed calendar.  

My neuro-psych evaluation says my short term memory now falls in the "low-average" range.  So, I suppose I should be grateful, but I have never had a low-average memory and I do not accept anything about what's happening to me as "average" or "normal."  

I forgot to blog for two days.  No biggie.  No harm done.  But my confidence has taken a beating.   

And my note taking ability is nothing short of fabulous!  Always a silver lining.   My intellect and humor remain intact.  Whew.  

Onward... 

Comments

[Cheryle Sullivan, M.D.]

I also now have an "average" memory. For me it feels like my memory is like a piece of Swiss cheese. Infrmation is dropped onto it and half sticks, the other half falls through. It doesn't matter how important the information is, how much I want to remember it, it's random what's remembered. That's less functional than most with "average" memory function.