I forgot the grocery list.
So?
The list is very important because with out it I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea of what we need.
What? You should remember something at least.
True, I should. Many of the things I would remember we might actually need, but I wouldn’t know that until I got home. The list in my head would be a mix up of all of the other grocery lists she had made for me in the past. My brain has trouble with time stamping things.
I tried to call my wife so she could tell me what was on the list I had left behind. Unfortunately my cell phone couldn’t call her because it was a new phone and had carried over her old number from her Google profile information.
That was another problem which I had been aware of but kept forgetting to fix.
That’s not so bad you say. We all have issues like that.
Of course we do. Unfortunately I have issues like this almost every day. One of the biggest problems that can come from a traumatic brain injury is short term memory loss. This is the one problem that I still have the most trouble with even though it has been seven years since the car accident that left me with a traumatic brain injury.
I am lucky since Tamara, who I didn’t meet until after the accident, has figured out ways to help compensate for the lasting effects of my brain injury. She makes a grocery list that I take to the store which is broken up into sections based on the layout of the store. That way when I go in to the store I can just work my way through the list like a map of sorts. If it is something that I am not used to getting, she will even include a picture and notes to help me find the specific item.
Tamara and I are partners. She amazingly good at reminding me to do things, making me lists, and encouraging me over the hurdles that my mind puts up for me. It has become second nature to her. So second nature that it is only occasionally that we even remember that I do have a brain injury! Every once in a while though, like the grocery store list I mentioned earlier, the fact I can never remember how much is in my back account, and it taking me months to remember any new person’s name reminds us that I do still suffer from the effects of a brain injury.
It helps to have a good sense of humor when dealing with these setbacks.
