My thoughts while attending the Alzheimer’s advocacy forum

May 15, 2011

Recently I traveled to Washington, D.C. as an advocate to attend the yearly advocacy forum. In thinking about this trip, I was worried about being at the conferences and how it might affect my cognition. During the conferences, we were able to sit with who we wanted to. One night, we had a formal dinner and we were assigned to a table. Luckily, the table that I was assigned to, I knew several people, so I felt comfortable. The table was also near the door, so I felt good about that. If the table had been further into the conference room, it would have made it a lot more challenging for me to find the correct table, since there were over six hundred advocates. Thankfully, that wasn’t a problem.

I think that this forum is difficult for me because it forces me to reflect and really think about what it is like to live with a memory impairment. That doesn’t mean that I don't do that normally because I don’t really have a choice. When the memory impairment symptoms roll in, I don’t have any choice but to recognize that they are there.

I think that I usually try not to let the memory impairment consume my life and I think that is a very good thing! I also do my best to keep a positive attitude. I try not to think about mild cognitive impairment progressing to dementia because I'm hopeful that it won't. I will continue to share my story in order to help bring awareness about what it is like to live with a memory impairment.