The waitress spoke;  “Thank you, Ma’am.  Do you want french-fries, hash browns, or onion rings to go with your meal?”  … But I could not bring up memory concept for any option but onion rings, and that was just round crunchy things that I knew I could not have.  The other words had no meaning.

Newest challenge is lack of word recognition when spoken.  Words flow over me and around me, but I do not recognize them.  In conversation, or giving selection at restaurant, I recognize the word with sensation of deja-vu, knowing that I should have a concept to go with the word, but no picture, flavor, or memory appears to match the word.  Need to bring pictures  when ordering from menu, for times when I cannot recognize some of the basic food words.  I discover that when this happens too much in conversation, I just kind-of check out.

Detail:

Tru here.  FINDING words has been a problem for a long time.  Lack of reading comprehension has been a problem for a long time.  But not having a memory concept for familiar words is a new challenge.  Twice this week, husband needed to show me what french-fries were, and the other options to go with meal.  He used pictures on the menu.

Prior to this week, Most of my word recognition problems in conversation have been related to speed, accent, and delivery of words spoken.  And I don’t think this is a common problem amongst my friends, so it has me stumped.  Now I am discovering that even if the word is spoken slowly, with pauses to let my brain catch up, I am still not remembering meaning for familiar words spoken by my friends and family.  I think it has been happening for a while, but only realizing it now that it is getting worse.  In conversation, words flow over me and around me, but I am unable to find any concept to match the words, lose the train of thought … and drift away.

The words are familiar and I know I should have a concept to go with them, but nothing is coming … and the person just keeps talking and I am left further behind.  Hoping they will say something that I can again catch a thread for what we are talking about, I will usually desperately continue to listen for a while.  And yes; there is the gathering sensation of desperation.  If this is a close friend, and a private conversation, then after short while I will say something like, “I have no idea what we are talking about, can we try again?”  If that doesn’t work I will say, “I am not getting this topic, we need to talk about something else.”  If there are more than 2 or 3 people involved, then I think desperation gives way to despair … and I just mentally check out.

Related Links:

https://truthfulkindness.com/2014/12/12/suggestions-understand-audio-communication-dementia-symptoms/

https://truthfulkindness.com/2014/09/29/my-thoughts/

* Admin issues: SHARE dementia awareness thru buttons below. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the form of comments, but please filter your comments with truthful loving kindness to all concerned. If interested in receiving notice of future blog postings, subscriptions are available through a “follow” button in the upper left corner (MS Explorer) or lower right (Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Chrome). If there is an advertisement below, I have no control over what is shown. My own full legal name is Truthful Loving Kindness. My current diagnosis is Mild Cognitive Impairment, but my neurologist said I am in a unique position for helping because I have “one foot in each door”. Copyright 2016-09/06 with 2hrs on text plus 1.5hrs on graphic. Search terms: dementia, MCI, aphasia, conversation.

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