I\u2019m well acquainted with it \u2013 been dealing with it for decades. It starts in your fifties, for most people. I call it memory distractions. Sounds harmless. Memory collapse is more like it! <\/p>\n
I first stumbled into it in my mid-forties. I was on the phone with a vendor; after settling on a delivery date, he asked for my address. My mind went blank. I knew the street name, but the house number escaped me. I said to him, \u201cHang on a second; someone\u2019s at the door.\u201d I put the phone down and tore to the front door, went out on the porch to see what numbers were nailed to the siding and reported back. A few days later, I was on the phone telling Cheryl, a family friend for years, about my memory collapse. She laughed so hard she had to put her phone down. When she came back on the line, she said, \u201cThat\u2019s nothing! I was on the phone and was asked my name; I went blank. I had to hang up and call back a minute later. With a – \u201cWe got disconnected\u201d \u2013 excuse.<\/p>\n
Her experience made me feel so much better. I knew I wasn\u2019t alone; memory spasms were ordinary. And, to make it even better, hers\u2019 was worse. I forgot all about my address failure; but a few years later, when I was in my fifties, the memory lapses become a way of life. <\/p>\n
The issue really came to the forefront the other day. I was racing around the room looking for a pen that I swore I\u2019d just put down on the table. I eventually went to the \u201cpens and gum\u201d drawer (a name it was given back when we had little kids running around the house), got another pen and sat down at the table to write. It was then that I discovered the first pen; I was holding it in my teeth. <\/p>\n
What a shock! Worse than a typical old coot memory lapse, the one where you \u201close\u201d your glasses and discover them riding on top of your head, or the one where you find the \u201clost\u201d car keys, after racing around in a panic, tightly clasped in your hand. <\/p>\n
Whenever something like this happens, you think, \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s. Now I\u2019ve got it!\u201d But, after a short while, you forget the incident, and all is well. It\u2019s not Alzheimer\u2019s. It\u2019s just a rerun of your teenage years. Those days where you \u201cForgot to do your homework.\u201d \u2013 \u201cForgot to make your bed,\u201d \u2013 \u201cForgot to put your dishes in the sink.\u201d <\/p>\n
Talk about memory problems, compared to teens, us oldster\u2019s are memory savants. Sure, we have these episodes of memory \u201cdistraction.\u201d That\u2019s our problem; we get distracted; we have too many thoughts going through our head at the same time. That\u2019s my story and I\u2019m sticking to it.<\/p>\n