...huh?

This could be never-ending... talking about cognitive losses.  I think that is the worst part of this.  My mind just does not work like it used to but then again hardly anything does.

I will forget words... simple words... like broom.  Stuff shover, that's all I could come up with.  Office, that was another one.  I called it that rectangle room you spend your work day in. lol... It's always those little bitty words and you end up using a boatload of words to get the person to understand it too.

A strange one happened the other day.  I wanted to know what you called a small car accident that has little to no damage or injuries.   I could not come up with it but I kept saying bumper stumper.  I knew that wasn't right but couldn't come up with it.  And I had no idea that what I wanted rhymed until I finally recalled fender bender. Now, it's weird to think that my brain knew that what I wanted rhymed with the back end piece of a car!?!  Bumper stumper.  Fender bender.  Hmmm...

Instinctive actions appear to be compromised as well.  I recall once I was browning some hamburger and a bit of hamburger came out of the pan.  So, I reached down to pick it up off the red hot burner.  No alarm triggered me NOT to do it but the heat did.  Thankfully.  And I started to get lost while driving.

Another problem is in comprehension.  It takes reading something several times in order to completely understand it, whereas years ago I dang near had a photographic memory.  That's what got me through nursing school and I miss it.  Recall is not anywhere near what it was, either.

I mentioned on the ear page that too much stimuli is disconcerting.  I can't seem to wade through stuff if too much is happening.  Like me... in a car... going down the highway... with the rain coming down... and wipers going back and forth and back and forth... and songs playing on the radio.  Argghhh...  Can't do it.  Nope.  Nada.  Ain't happening.  No more.

Considering I used to be a nurse who specialized in Alzheimer's care, the above seems incredible.  If there is system overload anywhere, it is in a home or ward of Alzheimer's patients... especially if you were the head nurse.  Not only, did you have to watch the patients, and listen for alarms, pages and the like, you had conversations going on all at the same time.  And I could handle it all.  Now it would reduce me to a quivering mass.

I remember the days I could be talking on the phone to a patient or doctor's office and someone, be it staff or family, will say something. Not only could I respond to them, I could do it all the while doing it while I charted.  lol.. I was the multitasking queen. Now, I get lost reading an e-mail these days.

Speaking of e-mail, I don't know about you but I think the words that I am going to type as I type them.  And for whatever reason, my fingers will type a completely unrelated word instead of the word I wanted at times.  So far the really bad things that could have happened with this weird word switching, I have caught ahead of time.  Hopefully, you haven't ran across any, or at least many.