60. Escorting chemo brain out of the building

I participated in bedside rounds with the residents and a rotating medical student today. One of our residents was using medical-ese to explain to a patient’s mother why her son needed a urinalysis. Recognizing this, I spoke to the mom in simpler, more understandable words (yes I talked to the resident about this after rounds… need to be conscious of using jargon!). Without hesitation. In Filipino (Tagalog). Which means I was able to harness enough brain power to translate English to Filipino, and medical-ese to layman’s terms! This has not happened so smoothly in a very long time.

I could not have done this six months ago – the chemo brain word-finding difficulties have definitely improved! And right on time too, today marks 375 days after my last session… almost to the year. I’ve read that it usually takes 9-12 months to recover and here it is. I still have occasional word-finding difficulties but this is a solid improvement. I’ll take it! It’s a sign that I’m ready to do clinic soon – targeting to start next month, a few hours a week. Wow I have hair (adjusting to post-chemo curls, but better than no hair!), and I have a functioning medical brain!