Hospital Appointment

I had to google Soutra.

Only you could get to that topic from a memory test phoenix.
I glad that it is all over for the time being.

www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://7-themes.com/data_images/out/47/6932328-pangolin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://7-themes.com/6932328-pangolin.html&h=1200&w=1920&tbnid=9o1yrBx4WOrBsM:&zoom=1&docid=I9aboBNnVsv82M&ei=pOSCVZyEFoT_ULrugsgD&tbm=isch&client=opera&ved=0CDYQMygBMAE

(This probably won't work!)

What's a Pangolin???

Afternoon all, and thanks for the positive posts.

Got there today, and at the right time too! CT scan done and dusted by 9.30, only waited about 2 minutes. Was sent off to the "Memory Clinic" where I was told that my appointment there was for 11am so much sitting around waiting. I also managed to forget to take my book with me, even though I had put it on the kitchen table next to my handbag

When I was eventually called, a very nice young man took me through various tests for an hour.

He looked as if he was on work experience! However we did discover that we are both fans of the pangolin and wish people would stop eating them.

Over the past two days, I have TWICE EACH sent messages to the wrong DC.

They, of course, think it's hilarious and are both pleased to see that I am just as rude and bossy to each of them!

I agree with Nellie. I don't think there is anything wrong with your brain Phoenix and the sort of memory problems you are experiencing are the same as for the rest of us as we get older. You are probably a bit young for it to be as frequent BUT you have had an awful lot of stress and stress bu@@ers up your brain completely.

I worry about DH sometimes but then realise that I do the same sort of things that he does. This thread is very reassuring.

I meant to post this yesterday but forgot to come back to it.

I have missed a hospital treatment appointment completely by comvincing myself it was the next day. In fact I have done that twice the other time was turning up at the GPs surgery when I should have been there the previous day.

Your have had a lot of stress that can B****r up your memory.

Sometimes I forget what I am talking about in the middle of a conversation. I really only bothers me when the person I am talking to doesn't know either ! What a scintillating conversation that must be.
The other thing I do is write something in my diary in a sort of shorthand and then not know what it was. Last week I couldn't work out what Manic K 2pm was all about. DD1 to the rescue. Turned out to be an appointment for a manicure with Kay.

I have done it again today -I thought my cleaning lady was due this week and am all ready - then my friend sent message and said lady was with her and is here next week!!! Not completely doo-lally - comes every two weeks normally but for some reason it is three weeks this time - read the trusty calendar wrong!!!
It actually suits me better being an extra week and DH has a treat for me today. - a ride in his adored van to a DIY store an hour or so away ( for plasterboard for the fabrication of my new walk in wardrobe ) and then to collect a large tank which is a grease trap to improve our Fosse system. Aren't I the lucky one??!!!! . Well I am with the wardrobe bit!

Our GPs have two surgeries and we make appointments at either. I recently drove DH to one for a blood test. I got extremely irate when he started asking if I was sure we were going to the right one. I knew I was right because I'd made a note on the calendar. Naturally when we arrived at the surgery it was the wrong one! When I checked the calendar when we got home I had written the right surgery on it and just read it wrong

I have done this sort of thing too! Booked a flight and then turned up a day late. Expensive mistake! I now write everything on a calendar and check it every day, plus enter it into my iPhone and iPad. Bleeps get me into gear! I think it is a normal ageing thing. I hope it is!

* a wake

I love my phone-everything goes in it but I still manage to double book myself!

This thread reminds me of the classic Only Fools and Horses sketch where Del Boy and Rodney turn up dressed as Batman and Robin at awake instead of a party!

We turned up, dressed up to the nines for a very posh dinner party.....a week late
Needless to say we were never invited again!

My memory is definitely not what it was, but I just have to write things down, I'm pretty sure it's because I have too much to think about most of the time and not paying enough attention to detail.

Mishap, that short-term memory test is awful but for me it always was. I can see mum has completely forgotten being told the information by the time they ask her about it and doesn't understand its relevance in the first place but just not being able to remember all the address (as it often is) is something different surely? I would have thought some people have a better short-term memory than others from day one. I was always bad at things like Kim's Game which relies on this but to me an awful lot of the inability was nerves. The "what if I get it wrong" syndrome.

I can remember taking my mother to the Theatre on the wrong night!! This was donkeys years ago and luckily there were two cancelled seats available, so she didn't know about the 'mistake'!! Now of course like others, I do have to check appointments very carefully!! But having said that, these days, one day is much like the other, and I think getting things wrong is easy done, and doesn't mean that our faculties are necessarily on the skids. Perhaps just slightly more attention to detail is needed but no more than that - hopefully!!!

I cannot function without my diary - if someone asks if I am available tomorrow, I have to get my diary - no hope that I might remember! And if I am asked what I did at the weekend - out comes the diary again, as I cannot always remember what I did.

And those tests where you are given a few words to remember, then do another test, then come back ad try and remember the words - not a hope! I think the reason that such a test is particularly difficult is because the words you have to remember mean nothing to you - they are just words; whereas words that have some relevance to your life tend to be easier to remember, in spite of distractions in between.

All this seems to be pretty common as we get older, without it being pathological.

I am sure I have posted before about a psychiatrist I worked with who for years had marked people down if they said the queen had 4 children because he thought she had two, until I pointed this out to him!

Good luck phoenix.

Lona thank you for those reassuring words. My 'charm' is boundless.

phoenix a standing joke with one of my friends is how a few years ago she couldn't think of a word and said "you know, that place where I live"
grannya I (and most of my friends) are just like you, using a phrase instead of a word, jumbling words up and sometimes just talking gobbledygook!
It's part of our charm

Thanks graces My GP did a blood test just to check various things and it all came back as normal.

I'm not worrying overmuch about it, but feel that it makes sense to get it checked.

Yes, I read that was another cause, along with lack of 'B' vitamins.

Can I say well done phoenix for meeting this head on.

After learning more than I would ever want to know about Alzheimer's (although never enough) over the last five or six year years there are a couple of points I would make.

Firstly, there is such a thing as age related memory loss so it is not surprising that we have problems as we get older. Secondly I do not believe dates, etc., are as relevant to us when we are not working so that is not a good measure. When my mother realised she would be asked the date and day she made sure she knew them before a test . I am not sure she could now but I found it more relevant when she could not tell what season it was.

My third point would be to ensure that all other tests are done. I was beginning to think I was following in my mother's footsteps until I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I have it at a fairly low level (although I would challenge the fact that they don't test all the parameters) and it was picked up when they/I thought I had another problem. Since I started "taking the tablets" my memory has improved and I have learned about the "hyperthyroid fog".

Well phoenix, at least there's nothing wrong with your sense of humour!

Do you know ga that has just reminded me that I used to get just like that for the first couple of days of my period! "It's in the thing on the wall" for cupboard etc. so I can see where it could be hormone related for some.

I agree Ana. Each morning before I get up I lie there, think what day it is and have I got anything planned for that day. If I have to be up early, I put the alarm on the prevous night and lay out my clothes to wear.