Not being able to compare things due to my short-term memory problems

(Chapter 3 Memory Problems in my book)

I was thinking that if someone were to ask me how I'm doing and if my day is going better than the day before, how would I answer that? I think that for most people, this would be an easy question to answer. For me, this is a very interesting question. In order for me to be able to answer this, I need to be able to compare this day with the previous one, which for most people is not a problem. But for me, because I have problems with my short-term memory, this is a difficult task for me. I think that most of the time I would be unable to answer this question because it would just be a random guess and no data to back it up.

This same thing has happened to me before when my Mom has asked me about my pain level. I told her that because I can't remember my pain level the day before, I have nothing to compare it to. She tells me that I probably should write it down. I choose to spend my time living my life, rather than writing everything down that I need to remember. That would just drive me crazy! I have a lot of pain each day due to a bad fall that I had at my job in April 2014, have had two surgeries and have now been out of work since June 2015.

One day, I explained to my Mom that my short-term memory is like a numbered dot to dot picture that you would connect the dots in numbered order to form a picture. It seems like my brain has misfiled a lot of things, so it would be very difficult for me to connect the dots. There would be gaps in the picture to match my missing memories.

This is just the way it is and I have no choice but to accept it and just continue to live my life the best way that I know how, making adjustments along the way to accommodate changes in my cognition.