I wasn’t feeling too peppy today and so needed some motivation to jumpstart my day. I never need to look outside for motivation. My family’s and my stories are equipped to do the trick.
I don’t have scars, but a lot of aftereffects of the stroke stayed with me. Some of them improve with training and time and I’m still working on them. Some, I had no other option but to just find methods to cope with it.
Today I’ll tell you about my struggles with short term memory loss. I constantly work on reminders. And no, just audio or visual reminders don’t work. I in fact keep alarms so that I have to physically take my phone to switch the alarm off and I see the reminder.
After burning a lot of food, now I keep an alarm to sautė my veggies, turn my pancake and so on. If I’m getting dressed to go somewhere and I take my phone in between to check something, I lose track. Then I go on to WhatsApp and reply to messages and browse through Facebook and finally when my husband storms in yelling “we are late!”, that's when I realize I haven’t even changed!
The struggle is real. As annoying it is for me, it’s annoying for people around me too, and I don’t blame them! You see, when my short term memory was affected, my long term memory improved drastically too! The other day our friends visited us after a long time and I was surprised myself that I remembered her favorite song! I don’t quite remember 2-3 years prior to my stroke but old memories are served fresh here!
I have said this before, whenever I’m faced with challenges, I give it a humorous spin in my mind and next I’m probably laughing about it. My son has managed to inherit this same habit. When my alarm rings, he shouts “Dory, your alarm!” Get it? “Dory” from Finding Nemo because of the short term memory loss!
It’s a part of our life now. Living with it for 3 years, all of us at home have learned to use it to our advantage. My husband knows, if we argue about something, by afternoon I would’ve forgotten it and so he pretends like nothing has happened. Sometimes I miss something because of my carelessness and I play the victim card and blame it all on my memory! My son tricks me into believing that he hasn’t watched television all day!
‘Survival of the fittest’ has now evolved to ‘survival of those who best adapt’!
No matter what life throws at you, being able to brush it off and rise again is a natural instinct in humans. History has proven this time and again. Nothing in life is worth losing your life over! This is easier said than done. Trust me, I know. But you’ve got this.
I’m a strong believer that everything that happens to us is definitely something we already have the strength to endure.
My husband and I had the strength to endure my son’s prematurity and diagnosis. My whole family including my son had the strength to endure my stroke. We have the ability to laugh off my short term memory loss. So, if you are facing a challenge, don’t look around, the solution lies right within you my friend!