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 Each day feels new, and my memory of the one before is faint. Iām learning to adapt. |
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In September 2019, a seizure revealed a lime-sized meningioma pressed against my hippocampusāthe part of the brain that governs memory and language. The doctors said it was benign, but benign didnāt mean harmless. Surgery removed the tumor, and three days later I opened my eyes to a new reality. I could walk, I could talk, but when I looked at my wife, her name was gone. I called her Preciousāthe only word I could find. A failure of memory, yet perhaps the truest name of all. Recovery has been less cure than re-calibration. Memory gaps are frequent. Conversations vanish. I had to relearn how to write, letter by halting letter. My days are scaffold by alarms, notes, and calendars. When people ask how I am, I donāt list symptoms or struggles. I simply say, āSeven Degrees Left of Center.ā Itās not an answerāitās who Iāve become. Note ▼ |
| I start each day by reviewing notes from the previous day and the days before. My memory gap is about five days. Something that happens today will not be processed immediately. After five days, the memory moves from the broken short-term memory storage to the long-term memory library. The challenge is learning and adapting to the disconnect. Writing regularly helps. Reviewing and rewriting the things I want to remember. Advanced planning is also a valuable tool. Planning a task a week in advance will help process through the gap. This increases the odds I will remember what I need to when I need to. |
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