My thoughts about living with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) & what my children know

(Chapter 12 Navigating Relationships While Living with a Memory Impairment in my book)

When it comes to my three grown children ages twenty-seven, thirty-one, and thirty-five, they only know my difficulties if it affects them. For instance, my daughter and I will have a phone conversation and a few days later, when we talk again sometimes, I will have little to no recollection of the conversation with her. She has asked me why I can remember things from thirty or more years ago but I sometimes can't remember something a few days ago. I told her that is because my long-term memory is still mostly good and that MCI mostly affects my short-term memory. I think that I have told my children about the social media support groups that I'm on, but then again, I might not have told them. I don't think that they know about my blog/website, youtube channel, poems or that I'm working on putting everything together to publish a book! I have chosen not to share any of this with them. I think, at this point, if I do get a book published, then I will hand it to them and show them what I have been done.

I think that the reason that I choose not to share my daily struggles with them is because I don't want them to worry about me. I do a lot of journaling so I feel that if I'm declining, I will probably recognize that this is happening. If it continues, I can call my neurologist and talk to him about it.