The persistence of memory

I have a terrible memory. Shocking. It's one of the more irksome elements of having an illness like ME/CFS. Take for example the following:

"Guess what!? Dad got a new car. It's blue and it has a proper alarm, although that hasn't been installed yet."

Many patients suffer from poor short-, medium- or long-term memory; trouble thinking in a straight line (this isn't helped if the patient takes certain pain killers, did you see the sunrise this morning? oh I got a new birdbath yesterday!!); trouble picking the correct .... word; trouble remembering the name of a given toaster (I mean item); trouble remembering what they are saying halfway through a long train of... Where was I?; trouble remembering dates and times of appointments or birthdays; among many others that I have probably forgotten.

"Did I tell you Dad got a new car? It's this really nice blue colour and it has a real alarm!"

At times it can be very embarrassing. It seems I am incapable of remembering people's favourite colours, unless they are the same as mine (and thus far only one person - that I remember - likes blue and yellow). I can't tell you the number of times I've bought the wrong brand of pads for my sister, even when she has given me detailed instructions on the correct type. I often wander into the kitchen, forget why I went there, wander back to my bed and lie down. Then remember I'm thirsty, so I get up, go to my parent's bedroom, forget why I'm there, go back to bed and go to sleep.

"Hey guess what!? Dad got this cool new blue car, with an alarm and everything!"

Sometimes I switch between English and Spanish, mid sentence. Which wouldn't be a problem if the person I'm talking to spoke both these languages. If I don't answer an email right away it will be forgotten. If I don't take my medicines first thing in the morning they don't get taken. If I don't put something back where it belongs then I'll forget where it is and spend half a day looking for it. I just uploading a picture to go with this post and in the time it took to upload, I've forgotten what it's called.

"Dad got this cool new car the other week... It's got a real alarm and its a really nice blue."

So please don't hold it against me if I forget any of the following:

• Your name, age, birthday
• Where you live or where you work
• What you do for a job
• The names of your children or partner
  
• If you speak any other languages
• If you have any brothers or sisters
• If you are out to your friends/family/work etc
• Who your favourite actor/musician/band/movie etc is
  

"Yes Dan, you have told me about the car... Four times now."
"Oh, sorry."