I googled short term memory loss and one of the hits happened to be your blog. I realize I am responding really late, but I thought I would send you my best wishes for your daughter and tell you about my experiences with short term memory loss.

My son experienced fetal distress, and through lots of doctors appointments, tests, ups & downs, we were able to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together regarding his health. Among several issues; including mild cerebral palsy, dystonia in his right arm area, sleep apnea, mild seizure disorder, etc… he also has short term memory loss.

Looking at him it would be difficult to point out what his issues are. He runs, plays soccer, is in his age appropriate grade level, loves music, and is totally and completely viewed as a normal teenager. As his mom, I see how hard he has to work to keep all of this going. We work very hard to make sure he gets to all of his classes. We have an extensive but simplistic notebook system for him at school. It maps out times, classes, teachers, books, etc… When he comes home he is usually exhausted due to the apnea and just being totally overwhelmed due to working harder than most to just remember what comes next. I never thought we would be at this point where he can be dropped off at school and navigate through the halls of a sometimes ferocious junior high school. We purchased him a special watch, one that has 12 different alarms on it, and one that I can put text into in order to remind him where to go and what to do.

I want to tell you that you and your daughter will figure out a way to deal with this. there aren’t many people in my life know how much extra time I spend getting my son ready for the day. Emailing teachers for assignments. Emailing and talking with and reminding teachers to follow our 504 plan to help him succeed. Talking with guidance counselors to eliminate the unnecessary classes and only keeping what he needs to eventually graduate. Making sure I am double checking to see if I didn’t forget anything. Setting his watch daily (our Jr. High works on an A/B day – which means on A day he has 4 classes and on B day he has the other 4 classes. In all we have 8 different options of what his day can be like.) Reassuring him how wonderful his life is and how wonderful his life will be? Repeating everything I say several times, several times a day.

I am thankful for my son. I have learned things I never thought I would need to know. I do wish you well.

Michelle
(late at night typing, forgive my errors!)

As many times as I have to get after my children over and over again, I can’t hardly imagine having this as a medical condition…. And, scary. Keep us posted. I am so interested in all the technology and science and medicine out now days to help remedy medical issues and disabilities.

You are doing a fabulous job! Kudos!
.-= farmer*swife/GlassHalfFulGal´s last blog ..For GARY RITH, and his potter blog =-.