Finding “Flory”

So it seems that I recently earned myself a new nickname: Dory.  The Dory that is my namesake is the delightful, yet very forgetful fish from “Finding Nemo” and of course its sequel, “Finding Dory”.  No offence to you, Ellen, but if I were to choose to model myself around an animated character, Dory would not make my top ten list.  I envision myself as more of a smoking hot Jessica Rabbit, a dignified and regal Pocohontas, or even a smart and sassy Lois Griffin.  But Dory?  Come on!   You know I can do better than that!

Ok, so I guess you are wondering HOW I earned the nickname.  Well, I guess it is pretty obvious.  I forget stuff.  Not just the normal stuff that people forget, like the names of colleagues, friend’s birthdays or the whereabouts of keys, but big stuff, like entire conversations and the whereabouts of my car.  You may be thinking, “Who doesn’t forget where they parked their car from time to time!”  That’s not what I mean.  What I mean is, I almost called the cops once and reported my car stolen because I forgot that I had loaned it to my daughter the night before.

I was pretty excited when my sister, Lessy, told me that she was coming home from Alberta to visit.  I was equally as excited the second time she told me, the third time she told me, and even the fourth time she told me.   That’s when I earned my nickname.  “Mom, for God sakes, you have the memory of Dory”, said my daughter, Kaitlyn, “That is the fourth time that Aunt Lessy has told you that she is coming to visit, and each time you act as if you are hearing it for the first time!”   That’s because it IS like I am hearing it for the first time.

It has gotten so bad that my carpool partner, Khyla,  has made a sign that says, “Heard it before!”, which she pulls out from under her seat and flashes at me each time I begin to repeat a story.

9461-conversation-cartoon

Many times my partner, Steve, has made the comment, “Flo I’m getting worried about you,” whenever I repeat a question that he has already answered about a dozen times.  And then there are the embarrassing times at work when I fail to remember details of conversations.  I once thought that one of my colleagues was psychic because she could name the very book that was sitting on my night stand at home.  Not only did I forget that we had discussed the book the day before, but I was also oblivious to the fact that she is a member of my book club!  Don’t even ask me her name.

I am proud to say that I have come up with some pretty ingenious ways of getting around my memory deficits.  For example, remembering passwords used to be a real pain in the ass for me.  So I changed all of my passwords to the word “incorrect.”  That way, I am guaranteed a reminder each time I mess up: “Your password is incorrect.” I also find it useful to write little reminders on the back of my hand.  Not only do these markings remind me that I have to do something, but trying to figure out what the abbreviations mean has turned into a great game between me and my kids.

“Hey Donovan, I have the letters b.b. written on the back of my hand.  Any idea what that might mean?”

-“bewildered bear?”

-“baby beluga?”

-“bacon bubbles?”

-“baboon butt?”

-“black beans?”

“Yeah, that’s it, I need to pick up some black beans on the way home from work. Thanks!”

Another strategy that has served me well is one I call “fake a memory”.  It goes something like this:

Kaitlyn:  Mom, what movie would you like to watch on Netflix tonight?

Me: I’ve been dying to see “Daddy’s Home”, let’s watch that.

Kaitlyn:  Mooooom!  We watched that last month.

Me: Oh riiiiiggghttt!  I remember now (barefaced lie). It’s the one about the dad who comes home.  Yeah, we watched it together, I remember.

I also have a little technique, which is similar to “fake a memory” in which I actually pull the desired information from the person I am talking to.  It goes something like this:

Steve: Hey Flo, where would you like to go for dinner tonight?

Me:  How about Oliver’s?  We haven’t been there in ages.

Steve: We were there just last week. Don’t you remember?

Me:  Ha ha (nervous laugh). Of course I remember.  We had that delicious little appetizer.

Steve: Right, bruschetta.

Me:  Yeah, I really enjoyed that bruschetta.  And you ordered the special. (He usually does)

Steve: I sure did.  The cod was delicious.

Me: Of course, I over-did it on the wine again. (Pretty safe guess there)

Steve: Thank God you remember.  I was starting to get worried about you!

I know it is normal to get more forgetful with age and wine consumption, but my sketchy memory was becoming really worrisome.  After watching the movie, “Still Alice”, I had myself convinced that I was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.  That’s when I started to talk to some of my survivor sisters at my breast cancer support group and I learned that many of them are dealing with the same issue.  We have the memory robbing culprits narrowed down to two things: chemo-brain and Tamoxifen (a drug I take to reduce the chances of having a cancer recurrence).

Despite the fact that both chemo and Tamoxifen have debilitating side effects, not the least of which is memory loss and cognitive impairments, they also have another, more desirable side effect: Life.  While I am a firm believer in natural, complementary and holistic approaches to treating cancer, I also have faith in conventional treatments.  Chemo destroyed the cancer cells that were invading my body, while Tamoxifen and my lifestyle changes have kept the cancer from coming back (at least to this point in time).   So the benefits for me outweigh the side effects. Besides, despite my memory problems, I am enjoying life to the fullest.  Right now, for example, I am over the moon with excitement!  My sister, Lessy just called to tell me that she is coming home for a visit.  YAY!  I can’t wait to tell Kaitlyn the good news!

chemobrain-5

This entry was posted on November 6, 2016, in Uncategorized and tagged chemo brain, chemo brain and memory loss, Ellen, finding Dory, tamoxifen and memory loss. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments

10 thoughts on “Finding “Flory”

  1. I love the heard it before sign! Lol. It’s so good that you are taking it all with a grain of salt Flo. Every time I called you to confirm things with you and you were so excited and hearing it for the first time, I thought ‘she must have been hammered when I called!’ Then I heard about chemo brain. I think a Flory experience is way better than sick or worse! You are an inspiration. I loves you sissy!

    Reply
  2. Thank you, thank you, thank you. My kids tell me my “chemo brain” excuse is getting old. I plan to forward this to all of them with the caption “I told you so, again”. 😉 I thoroughly enjoy your writings. Keep them coming and here’s to continued good health, even we can’t remember what we ate for breakfast. Regards, Velma

    Sent from my iPad

    >

    Reply
  3. Love it! It’s a definite struggle for me too! Its caused me embarrassment many times…and my terrible memory has hurt the feelings of others quite often too…I can forget really important things such as asking how somebody’s test results were …that can be misconstrued as “not caring” enough to remember…that one really bothers me…most times though I can just have a laugh about it!

    Reply
  4. baha, baha, loved this Florence. I think that this is a topic that all of us girls who are aging have in common. At least you have an good excuse for memory loss. I am at a loss for mine. Mine has got so bad that the grandchildren are now finishing my sentences because I can’t remember the words. Even at work, my co-workers finish my words because I can’t remember them. I do remember them but go blank for the instant. Oh Well, could be much worst….and by the way I loved Dory! You forgot to mention that she was a very helpful, loyal friend,and very cheerful, so that is worth more than any sexy, sophisticated bunny. Keep on spreading the love!

    Reply
  5. It does get better eventually it is not like dementia. But you exercise your brain a lot. I used to forget that I had invited people round and when I opened the door to them it became a game of “Hi come on in, I have only got in myself so I am in a mess” while I tried to remember what I had invited them to”.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s