Advocating for myself

What has become easier for me, since my diagnosis is advocating for myself. For example, I can now be a lot more comfortable with telling someone that I have a memory impairment. Once I became comfortable with my physical therapists and I knew that I was going to quickly forget how to do things that they were asking me to do, it was clear that I had to tell them. They were very good about it and I answered any questions that they had. This has lifted some stress off of me, since I can just go to physical therapy and know that I can freely let them know when things are not going right. I can tell them that I either have forgotten how to do something or I don’t understand what it is that they are asking me to do. They will sometimes even do the exercises with me! This is so incredibly helpful and helps me feel like I can still be successful, but know that even if I need help, that they are not going to make me feel bad about it. This also helps me to not feel dumb.

Today I started water physical therapy for my knee. As I started doing some exercises in the pool, I realized that I needed to tell the therapist about my memory. I just told her that I had problems with my memory and I would sometimes need her to repeat things. She said that would not be a problem. I feel so empowered that I can do this for myself!