This is way too much text for me to deal with!

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

Last week I received a packet in the mail from the senior organization that I volunteer for. The envelope contained a two-page questionnaire that I needed to complete and mail back within two weeks. It had eight questions that I needed to answer. There were also three pages about the Covid19, NH Healthy Aging Data – two pages, the senior program- six pages, Percent of Population age 65 + years – three pages, Exploring the Choices for Independence Program – seven pages. As I looked at all of these packets and all the text, I thought that my head was going to spin!

I know that for as long as I have been living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), this is just way too much text for me to read, remember and comprehend. After I calmed down, I decided to not stress about it and I just put it on my coffee table for another day. I was trying not to worry about how I was going to get this task done because not doing it was not an option. The organization that I volunteer for does not know about my memory impairment. Over the next few days, I looked at the questionnaire and I just took one question at a time. It wasn't until I read question two, that I realized that the answer that I had written down for question one probably answered question two better. I copied the answer under question two. Then I whited out the wrong answer for question one. I reread question one and luckily, I was able to figure out the answer. On this particular day, I only answered three questions. Then I put everything back on the coffee table. I needed to break this down into smaller chunks so that I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed by it.

The next day, I worked on answering 2-3 more questions. On the third day I completed the questionnaire by answering all of the remaining questions. I was so happy that it was done! I really didn't want to complete this questionnaire but I really didn't have any other choice. Because I can no longer read, remember and comprehend this much text, I couldn't read every word in these packets. I just read each question, then scanned the text from the correct packet. Then I just read a section where I thought that I could find the answer. Sometimes I had to read the information more than once. I was so relieved that I was able to get this done.