Short term memory loss is one of the indicators of dementia.  It is one of the “signs” that one looks for—or doesn’t look for—or worries about…

Science tells us that it is common to forget from time to time where you put your keys, or to turn off a light, or to not remember if you turned off the coffee pot.  Forgetfulness can be caused by increasing age, stress, etc.  Forgetting names?  That, too, can happen as you age.  Not until your lack of memory really interferes in your life should you worry.

I’d like to tell you about what it is like to live with very little short term memory.  I have touched upon it in past blogs. 

This past weekend, my husband and I were out doing errands.  We headed into a car wash, a relatively new one for the community.  I got all excited.  “Oh, good!  We’ve never  been in this one!  Now I can see how this one works!”  (I don’t know why I would get so excited over a carwash…)  My husband said, “No, we’ve been to this one before.” 

I looked at him blankly.  When did we go there?  How could I not remember? I racked my brain and there was NO recollection of it anywhere to be found.  Imagine someone saying to you, “You met President Bill Clinton yesterday.”  (Of course, we are imagining here.  You, of course, didn’t really meet him.)  When you are told something that you have NO KNOWLEDGE of it can be disconcerting, to say the least.  That total lack of KNOWING is what it is like for me.  Big blanks throughout the day.  Nothingness…

At another time, my husband and I were swapping out our summer clothes for our fall/winter wardrobe.  I had been shopping lately for some nicer clothes to use during my teaching times with my Strenthening Your Mind classes.  I could not remember having any other “dressy” stuff.   Working together, Bill said to me, “Don’t forget.  You have a nice pants suit in the other closet that you were going to use for teaching.”  Total blank.  He described it.  Still a total blank.  Then, he showed it to me.  I remembered it after I saw it, but I had had no recollection of it until then.  I found that I didn’t have much memory of any of the clothes I had put away last March.  Getting them out was almost like Christmas!  Opening each closed container held surprises. 

I do remember things I use every day, like my favorite pots and pans and George Foreman grill.  Things I don’t use everyday I might remember I have them, but then I can’t remember where they are.  I spend lots of time just searching for things.  I must admit, though, that I do now recognize the vacuum cleaner and even remember to use it from time to time.  Today, I am hoping to clean out the refrigerator…if I remember to do it after writing this blog.  I look around the house, and I see many unfinished projects: haven’t ironed the curtains yet;  haven’t started my October scrapbook/journaling; haven’t charged my phone, Nintendo 2, camera; haven’t numbered my duckies for our Duck Pond game at our upcoming family reunion…