Can We Talk?
When I was through brain tumor surgery and transferred to inpatient rehab, I went through a bazillion different tests to see just how well my bean was working. There were obvious effected areas; my left arm and leg, but what you can’t see can be equally if not more disabling when you’re talking neurological conditions.
They tested my speech. Often stroke or brain tumor/injury victims struggle to speak clearly but I aced those tests. Those who know me will agree that I am quite the conversationalist. Okay, so I like to shoot the sh*t. I just have a lot of things to say and I mean most of them. Despite intermittent numbness on the left side of my face, I’m still a Chatty Cathy!
Short term memory was another concern. Short term memory was another concern. Just kiddin’! I tested well in retaining what I had just read or seen and did very little rehab for memory. Brain tumor or not, I forget what I’m doing while I’m doing it but what 50+ year old woman doesn’t? I tested out as “normal” as I can be regarding short term memory.
The one cognitive issue that did come out of the surgery was difficulty finding the word I’m looking for. As a writer, that isn’t good so I gathered all the tools I could to help me through that little glitch and so far so good. I don’t find myself lost in a phrase, searching for an elusive word anymore. For quite some time, I struggled. I do wonder though if the side effects of chemotherapy might have contributed. That stuff made me a space cadet.
I know in my heart that I am blessed, lucky, kissed by an angel, charmed and I am grateful, so very grateful for that. Yea, I can talk too much. I’ll drive you nuts talking but I CAN. And I can write and create. There are some gifts that even a brain tumor can’t, or rather didn’t, take away. Thank God! I would literally explode!
