Short Term Memory Loss and A Bedazzled Belt Clip

This whole cluster of crap has depleted my depth perception, banned me from the Armed Forces, and restricted my roller coaster life. All concerns I can easily live without. Weeellll....maybe not the depth perception. Our poor swaggerwagon has received 3 or more "accidental" dents due my parking. I need to stick to those back empty parking spots where the old and automotivally proud park.

 

Anyway, as I continued with my long term sub job I noticed tasks I normally would remember, like picking the class up from recess, coming back to a student to answer a question, or changing a lunch order would completely skip my mind. This lack of memory was very unusual for me. Typically, I enjoyed boasting to my forgetful Kyle that I didn't need to write anything down and that I was impeccable with names. However, as my mind was being challenged in "the big girl world," my mind, in fact, was failing me. I denied it for a while chalking it up to stress, but Kyle approached me about it after I forgot Franki and Moe at school (no judgment), and I got that dreaded phone call from the school's secretary inquiring if I was on my way to pick them up. "I forgot them, but don't tell them," I said into the phone as I dropped my shopping bags on the front step of house, ran to the beat up swaggerwagon and sped to get my stranded birds.

 

Right around then I had a neurologist appointment where Kyle urged me to bring up this memory situation, so I did. And the neurologist sent me to a Neuropsychologist; whoever knew such an occupation existed?  After a 2 hour consultation, a 4 hour mind numbing testing session, and another hour long recap consultation, it was concluded that I, in fact, had some short term memory loss and delayed processing skills. Personally and honestly, I feel like we could have shortened this 7 hour process to one quick test. The test involved the test proctor giving me 20 random words to remember in any order. She said them verbally and as soon as she was done saying them, I was to recite as many as I could remember back to her. Planning on this being an easy task, I was devastated when I could only spit out 4, yes 4, of the 20 words she had told me. That simple 3 minute test told it all. The Neuropsychologist recommended some cognitive rehabilitation and hinted at some compensation skills.

 

One of the compensation skills was to keep a meticulous calendar. So I went out to T-Mobile to find the phone with the most user-friendly calendar and began adding EVERY minor event I could think of. I set up an extensive network of alarms to trigger my brain that the kids need to be picked up or Henry had speech therapy. I was set...or, I thought I was set. The key, my friend, to using a cell phone calendar is having the calendar/phone with you at all times and having the ringer turned up. I often left my phone at home or forgot to turn the ringer up. So my alarms would go off, and I would be oblivious and in the same situation as before.



My phone isn't too conspicuous.

 

This lack of phone care actually became a huge deal in my marriage. Kyle just couldn't fathom having his phone further than an arm's length's away, and I just didn't have the same urgency. Even though I, unlike him, actually needed my phone to keep me on time and in the right places. So I got one of those super hip belt clips to keep my phone attached to me. I know belt clips scream "SHE IS AWSOMELY HIP!" However, Kyle was not a fan of my solution. He made fun of me and mentioned denying marital relations if I kept wearing my magnificent belt clip. I was even willing to bedazzle it, but rhinestones were not going to convince him to accept wearing my phone on my hip.
 







Well, if a bedazzled belt clip wasn't going to be accepted I saw another idea for keeping the phone on me. At Henry's speech class one of the moms wore her phone around her neck like a backstage pass to a concert. MIND BLOWN! Perfect, I thought to myself. That night I brought the backstage pass idea to Kyle. I think he was more disgusted with that than the belt clip. So we have met in the middle. I try harder to make sure my phone is with me and he is more forgiving if it is on the bed side table and I am at Hobby Lobby.