After Heart Attack Work Life – How Can You Deal With Short Term Memory Problems?

After your heart attack you may find that some of the medications you are taking to protect your heart interfere with your short term memory. In most cases this is more of a nuisance than a major problem. After all, who hasn’t walked into a room and forgotten why they went in there? In the workplace this can become far more than just a nuisance or personal frustration. In your workplace, how many times a day does your supervisor fly by, spew out five or six things that have to get done yesterday and then disappear…expecting them all to get done perfectly…and yesterday?

Before I go on let me introduce myself in case you have not read any of my other articles. I am not a medical professional by any stretch of the imagination. I have no medical or related credentials at all. In fact, the only qualification I have is that I am living this myself. Everything in here is simply my experience and my opinion. It is my sincere desire that my words help you in some way but please do not wander off the path set by the professionals around your case or set by your own good judgment. My experience is simply that I had a severe heart attack at 44 years old and have been regearing my life and learning a new way of being in the world and working. These articles are my way of sharing my experiences with you in the hope that you find some nugget of value to you in your own unique situation.

The first thing I have to say to you about the solution to this problem is simple. Do not solve it by reducing or stopping your medication. It is protecting your heart while it is healing to the extent it can and helping to protect it from further damage. I assure you…another heart attack will be far more disruptive to your work and livelihood than some problems with your memory. There are three simple disciplines you can develop to help you overcome this short term memory difficulty at work. These disciplines are to take notes, repeat important points to yourself and request e-mailed or written work task assignments.

Jotting down some quick notes as soon as you realize you have been told something important is invaluable. Get in the habit of carrying a small pocket-sized notebook and something to write with. Carry these all the time as you never know when you may come across something it is important for you to remember. The other half of this discipline is to read your notebook on some predetermined schedule. Do not count on remembering that you wrote something important. You are doing this because your memory is not reliable! Do not worry about someone being offended by being asked to wait a moment while you take out your notebook or to slow down a little while you write. Most people will appreciate that you think what they are saying is important enough to write down. If your boss is the "fly by" type, write key words as soon as you can and then expand them into sentences after your supervisor is gone, immediately after they are gone. This is not perfect but it is better than nothing and you will have enough information to ask informed questions for clarification rather than looking like you were not listening at all.

If you cannot take notes for some reason, repeat the most important points to yourself a few times right away. This process of rehearsal helps get those points out of your short term memory and into your more permanent long term memory. While your medications are interfering with the automatic version of this process, this intentional and conscious version seems to work pretty well, at least for me. Give it a try to see if it is going to work in your unique situation. It is not possible to get every little detail this way as they will be coming at you faster than you can possibly repeat them all to yourself. Practice will make you better at picking out the most important details that will either allow you to piece together the rest from experience or ask informed and pertinent questions. This will again demonstrate you were listening but need clarification rather than looking like you were not listening at all.

Last, chances are good that your boss already sends you task requests by e-mail in many modern work environments. This is great and make sure you take full advantage of that by reviewing your e-mails on a predetermined schedule. Just like with taking notes, do not count on remembering that you received an e-mail with important information in it. Learn to organize your e-mails so that the ones that contain important information that you have not yet acted on remain where you can easily review them. In cases where your supervisor already knows you had a heart attack (after all you probably missed work and have some major lifting and exertion limits to report now) you can see if they will start writing tasks they have for you that are outside your normal routine. It can reasonably be expected that you know to do those. You will have to use your own good judgment to determine whether or not you should talk this directly with your supervisor and co-workers. Many modern work environments are very understanding and will do reasonable things to accommodate the difficulties of their employees. Others are not so understanding and you may need to stick with the first two methods as those are under your control and do not require anything of anyone else. In any case, if you do receive written task requests make sure you file them and review them on your schedule again. You might not remember receiving them and this will not please anyone who has changed their normal way of doing things for you just to have them seemingly ignored. Take control of your work life and your stress level will stay lower.

The short term memory problems that may potentially be caused by some of your medications can be successfully and simply dealt with by developing these disciplines. Take the time to do them rather than to try to muddle through (your boss and co-workers will appreciate it) and rather than stopping your medications (your doctor, loved ones and heart will appreciate it).

Want someone to chat about these things with? I can be found on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/MeetDavidHerman

Do you want to learn how to use the internet to make the flexible, positive, balanced living that would be so helpful to your efforts to live a comfortable happy life? Check out this link and see if this community may help you:

http://www.AnythingAnybodyAnywhere.com

The only Healthy Heart is a Happy Heart!

by David Herman

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