Saturday, November 14, 2009

In Search Of My Brain

Somewhere in the past few weeks, my brain has gone missing. My husband might say it has been missing for longer than that but I can tell you that it has definitely been gone for several weeks. If you have seen a liberal arts educated brain wandering around thinking about cancer, cats, husbands, winter sports, vacations, work, cooking, crocheting, thanksgiving dinner, and daily walks, please send it back.

No seriously, I now clearly do not have a brain. I sat in a meeting yesterday and took notes. In the twenty seconds it took to walk back to my desk, I forgot what I needed to do urgently. We went out to dinner with a friend last night and I started a sentence about what the physical therapist said and forgot the second half of it while I was saying the first half 'The physical therapist told me...' It took me three tries. I also think I look the same things up on the internet daily. Because I can't remember what I looked up the day before. Every day I come up with brilliant ideas for my blog but then forget them before I can write them so write about really lame things instead.

My life is littered with sticky notes but I am past the sticky notes stage. I write them and then lose them. A niece and nephew had birthdays recently and I forgot to call. No wait, one birthday was last week and one is this coming week so maybe I can remember long enough to call this weekend.

I think this is chemo brain plus back pain meds brain combined. I am wandering around like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! Please send it back.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dear Caroline,

Here's a trick that works for me. I write EVERYTHING down in one solitary notebook that I keep on my desk at all times (sometimes I'll take it with me to a meeting). What goes in there? Notes from meetings and phone conversations, appointments, to-do lists, remember-birthday lists, grocery lists, etc. Then I'll transfer appointments onto a big paper calendar that's impossible to lose and for good measure I'll enter dates into my computer's Outlook calendar feature. I may not know exactly where I've scribbled down the information in the notebook but I know it's in there someplace (it helps if you date the pages).

I never use sticky notes (okay maybe I'll use one or two) but sticky notes are the devil. They fall off your monitor, they end up on the floor, they are the catalyst of chaos. For me, using sticky notes is just one step up from writing on the backs of envelopes (which I used to do).

Good luck!

www.yourbrainafterchemo.com

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