Forum Discussion
Sister
4 years agoMember
I'm 3.5 years from chemo and on AIs. I had to come up with a lot of different strategies for coping with the cognitive loss including writing things down and doing things "mindfully". The struggle is definitely real. One of the big things though was making sure that other people realised that they could no longer rely on me to remember things for them. I wonder how much of that, as a mother of teens, you do. On one hand my memory has become a bit of a family joke, but on the other hand, we all realise it is quite real. Harder to convince colleagues that when I say that I don't remember, I really don't remember. And some things don't stick no matter how hard I try - I just draw a blank. The psychologist I saw when I first went back to work did suggest that I was finding it so hard to deal with because I probably functioned at a higher level than many prior to diagnosis because she thought my post-cancer level sounded pretty normal. I don't know if that is the case but it's bloody hard to deal with some times.