[vini]

hi all
immediate memory loss , I was gonna call this thread a funny thing happend to me on the way to the fridge my nuro psychologist has identified a problem with my immediate memory, and because of this my short term memory is affected, amongst other things, this is more for the TBI guys and gurls coz its just so frustrating I list some instances that I can remember. only because they were so odd , putting the tv remotes in the freezer, washing out egg shells like you would a cup. putting butter in my coffee, EG mixing up objects, washing my hands under the hot tap, then rinsing them under the cold tap that is not turned on but not knowing its not on , and wondering why the water has stopped, coming out , when the hot tap is still running , I can see but my left side, seems to not register, not to mention the countless time I forget what has just been said to me , but if I can get it past this damage , things can stick in my mind , the one work around I have, is with my hart meds I shave half of my face then take my meds then shave the other half thus if I feel my face I know if I have taken my meds or not

any one else trying to live with this ITS really frustrating

[AintSoBad]

Vini,
For the first 3-4 years after my injury, in 98, I was like that.
My family would find cereal in the freezer, ice cream in the cupboard.
I'd put OJ on my cereal, or in my coffee.

For one year, all I ate (practically) was ice cream. Always had 4-5 flavors, half gallons.

I'd walk out of the bathroom, leave the water running in the basin.
Then, yell, who left the dam water running?

I was running two business's and, if I covered one note with another, I'd forget about the first!
As you've said before, thank God for computers, and PIP (Personal Information Programs). Calendars and such.


It IS very frustrating, and then, if you can get into a certain "spot" can be funny.
I still do some very silly things.
My Biggest problem,
is I
cannot get organized!
It seems I don't know how to throw things away.
(Paperwork). Not garbage.
It just keeps piling up all around me.

the Scars that get left on our brains, show in our lives....


Pete
Asb

[melek]

Hi, I too have the same issues...memory etc. I have MTBI and I just laugh when I find things in 'particular' places and I shake my head.

If you figure out a way to get organized, I'd love for you or anyone to post your procedures to this....I was so organized, kept up with paperwork and now....well, I'm sitting at my computer which is on my dining room table and ghee....I can not even find one spot to put one more piece of paper on it.....I am so afraid to throw anything away now. I threw away savings bonds and oh kept the envelope....thank goodness the trash had not been picked up when my son asked me where it was and I gave him the empty envelope...needless to say we rushed to the trash and sorted through it all and found the bond....I can give many more examples of my organization skills or I should say lack thereof....*smiles*. I've tried filing in expando files, cabinets still I can't get it together....oh the joys of TBI ! REALLY an issue at work....my office looks like a dump because of it. Let me know your thoughts on organization...

Thanks!

Melek

PS Keep on smiling....the light surrounds you and keeps you safe.

[Lucy]

Paper work!!!

All this "stuff" accumulates on the breakfast bar, I eventually move it to the nearby couch, then I move it into this huge basket in the lounge - it is overflowing and now too heavy to move. I have 2 small filing cabinets that are full and yes - I am either too scared to throw it out or think that I am not capable of sorting it out. Half of it will just be junk.

I used to have a file for everything and it was all nicely filed - now this feels insurmountable - lovely word that!

My last idea for it was putting it all in a big box and labelling it January 2009 - when ever I deal with it. Maybe 6 monthly boxes is the way to go. I am sure that if I miss paying some bills somebody will let me know!

The meomory issues - I think half the problem is distraction. If I am going to do something and the telephone rings of somebody talks to me the entire idea of what I was going to do is gone - same for when I talk - if something I see or hear interputs me mid sentence then the entire conversation is gone.

I keep finding clothes in my wardrobe that I don't remember buying - I automatically know what I have from pre accident - now 8 years old and past their best but after this time is weird! i.e. if something new is not right their in my face I won't think of using it - same goes for the kitchen. The new husband will say to me "why don't you use my garlic press?" I'll say I never thought of that - simply because it is not there in my "automatic" memory.

Vini I know what you mean by immediate memory - if I ask myself if I have taken my pills straight after taking them all I get is a blank - then I check to see if the water glass is dry or not and have my answer.

Previously when I have said all I want is to be able to stay awake all day as I can cope with the rest - I am sure that nothing has actually repaired in my brain, it is the fact that my survival instincts have taken over and I have learnt so many coping mechanisms - laughing instead of getting annoyed with myself. Also asking myself if anybody else is worried about it - if the answer to that is no I don't have to worry about it.

I write a lot of notes - and forget where I leave them. At least the cats get fed - they get their message across easily - stare then hang around ankles.

My best help is my to do lists. Printed forms with hours of the day down the side in one column, then next the to do column and then the I did column. The 4th psychologist that I saw gave me these she said to write down either the night before or on the morning what I wanted to do then she said only do a 1/3. I get satisfaction from ticking off what I have done and have found that I do actually achieve more - my rest times are always entered on it, my walks, gardening, telephone calls I need to make etc. Also works as a dairy - I can refer back and see if I did make that call etc. I guess it is all about STRUCTURE. Without it I would be thinking "what shall I do now?" and there would be no answer - just a blank aside from the very very obvious.

Gosh I rave.

Melek - are you still working - how are things going there? I have just had a huge mental hurdle - I have lost my registration as a Legal Executive - and I won't get it back either. A lot of tears over this. That with my brother in law dying a month ago has been hard. I find that I just can't deal with things like this any more - like your brain simply no longer has the capacity.

My poor husband comes home from work and tells me about the planning gosh I can't even think of the words - when you are seeing if something is feasible to do - it was what I used to love doing at work anyway for a new retirement village ( he is an accountant and general manager assets/finance for the Methodist Mission) and I will tiredly look at him and say excitedly that I managed to collect the dry cleaning and went to the supermarket. On good days he will have me look at a contract and I can give some decent input. I think he is wondering what he will discover when he comes in the door - fortunately he has a sense of humour. I am so lucky!

And this I had to laugh at. I must have been wearing something a bit strange and my husband (keep in mind that we have only been married 3 years) kindly told me - so I said to him are you saying that you married me for my looks? My son replied - well he didn't marry you for your brain!! See you have to be able to laugh!!

Lynlee

[melek]

Hello Lynlee!! Long-long-long time no chat....

Yep, I'm still working, still having problems, still have the people I work with look at me like I'm from another planet...work is hard, very hard but I'm still there....I don't have the responsbility that I did have nor can I really handle that responsbility now.

You had me cracking up laughing...isn't this a fun disability? My little dogs tell me also when it's time to eat....I know exactly what you mean about clothing...I'm surprised frequently when I look for something to wear....like 'where did that come from'? Tony, my partner, like your husband is very understanding and helpful and helps me laugh at myself...He works out of town frequently. Fortunately on this project he is doing right now he is only about 4 hours from home. He has been coming home on the weekends because, as he tells me....so you don't forget who I am *laughing*. He says when he gets here after being gone a few weeks, it takes me a few days to really recognize him...he says I look at him like who are you and why are you here? And you know, he's right...I'm a bit uncomfortable when he first gets home...unsure, he is very understanding about it.

Anyway, life is full of adventure now...never a dull moment as they say.

Chat more later, take good care of yourself....

Kay

PS - take a look at my gosh what is it called? My personal profile page? anyway take a look when you have a minute, I put some pictures of my little dogs in an albuml...of course, some are way too large...I need help on downloading pictures ) :

[gardengrl]

Hi Everyone...yup,,looks like I fit in here just fine! lol.........Along with doing Many of the same crazy things you all mentioned....

I Have to ask....I also have dreams,,that are as crazy as my life! Dreams that I dial phone #'s over & over,,the wrong way & just Everything is Backwards or screwed up!
Does anyone else have this????

And I agree 100% about being able to laugh at yourself, most of the time! But to be honest, I still get overwhelmed at times. Then I throw myself a little Pity Party......I always tell my DH that I have to go de-frag my brain, like he does his PC.

[Mark in Idaho]

Lynlee,

You sound like you should be working as an accountant. The papers all over the place is what I call doing a "spreadsheet." I have the 'sheets' of paper 'spread' all over the desk, floor and walls.

Spread sheet work is basic to advanced bookkeeping and accounting.

I just wish I could get my spread sheets to save in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software.

Vini,

Sounds like you are having a rough time. Sorry to ear that. I wish I could help but someone just washed my mind and i can't do a thing with it.

All,

Saw a new doctor yesterday. She has specialized in mTBI for decades. She came highly recommended. I am her first patient with negative images (MRI, CT, PET, EEG) who has had to stop driving. She was incredulous. She is going to present my case and records to her peers and try to develop a plan of treatment. She s hopeful.

We'll see. If she can get me to stop getting my right and left mixed up, we will be doing good.

Never had brain Occupational Therapy before.

[vini]

hi all

thanks for your responses it really help me through a bad day, what is it about PAPER WORK I remember the county benefit officer, bless her sitting trying to work out my paper work, after I had been let lose on it, I had totally shuffled it into an uncomprehensible, male strum , which is how it appears to me, but thanks to her and my partner we have it in some vestige, of order, but I am not aloud near it its all in brightly colored files. I can put new pages into the files I lay them out in the hall, then take one piece of mail at a time, read it then head of to the line of files and read it again then place it in the file then repeat until all my mail is gone, BUT let me lose in a file trying to find something and I get stuck, stuck ,stuck this may make sense to some of you, it can make my head hurt feel sick ect

but here is an interesting observation this has made me a good listener. or should I say reader , coz reading is not like hearing something and trying to commit it to memory like in a rush or hurry, where it just evaporates, before it can be stored , now this may seem a contradiction with paper work, but it comes down to overloading the immediate memory, one page read over and over I can handle , but present me with an uninteresting pile and my compromises brain refuses to be bothered with it, no matter how hard I try

now take our posts sentient and eloquent, as they are, it is I feel ! because we can read and re read our own and others posts and build it up , like take now ,I have no Idea what I have wrote above what I can read and see, but by re reading, I hope I am making sense also once a concept has made it past the block, we can , focus on it and express it with clarity , because we are not bothered with mind chatter from the immediate, and short term memory

I think we brain injured people can and do, use this work around, and thank god like mark says for computers

and thank god for you guys and gurls for listening or should I say re reading

hugs buds

[Lucy]

Vini - you have just made me think - it is funny how others can explain what is going on with yourself!

When I am writing on here - which nearly always ends up being lengthy - in case nobody has noticed - I finally get to understand -

Is it that when something is actually written down or that the person that you are responding to has prompted something????

I know that my general conversation can be all over the place - my husband will say to me how did that come from that?? My dauhterinlaw understands how the mention of something will make me follow on with something else - if you know what I mean - I believe that my distraction when having a conversation has a certain logic to it!!! Aren't I full of humour this week!!

Lynlee

[Mark in Idaho]

I think brain injured are the best at digression. Those little words that we use in a conversation can cause our brain to take off on a rabbit trail (as my wife calls them) She even has a sign for it. Two fingers hopping like rabbit ears hopping.

But I digress.....

I find that the digression is often about something I have wanted to mention but forgot. When the word pops out of the rabbit hole, we are already primed to take off on the rabbit trail.

Do we live in an Alice in Wonderland world?

Inquiring minds want to know.