Living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

(Chapter 6 Living with a Memory Impairment in my book)

My long-term memory is much better than my short-term memory. I also don't choose what I can remember. I know that it sometimes impacts my daily life. Sometimes it will bother me that my family and friends hold many memories of us that I do not. I do not like to be reminded of what I have forgotten. It makes me feel bad if someone tells me that I have already told them something.

Living with a memory impairment is challenging! Everyday tasks can become difficult or unable to do. The simple things, such as having a conversation with someone, may not go as well as it once did. I can be in the middle of a sentence and one of three things can go wrong. First, I might have trouble with word retrieval (unable to find the word that I want to use and unable to replace it with another one) and I will usually be unable to finish the sentence. The second thing that can happen, is while having a conversation with someone, I will suddenly be unable to remember what we were talking about! This could happen when I try to respond to someone and it can happen in the middle of a sentence. Third, I could be struggling with comprehension, so I won't really understand what was said to me.