I’ve mentioned age related memory degradation in this thread as far back as 2018. I thought I mentioned recently that I was going to see a neurologist, but damned if I can find that post. Anyway, I went and saw a neurologist, described short-term memory degradation, and what the urologist did was put me through a little series of tests to check my short term memory which she says I passed, but doesn’t mean I don’t have a short-term memory problem. It just means I’m not too far gone.
As it means of improving short-term memory performance, she suggested I take liquid vitamin B complex and she subscribed
Donepezil 10mg which I’ve been taking now for about two months. She warned me that some people have bad dreams, taking this medication, actually, she said nightmares.
Since then, I found that my dreams have become more vivid and pretty interesting which I’m enjoying, but more importantly I’m noticing that my cognitive function is better. Where I notice this most is in the pool, it’s easier to keep track of my laps. Secondarily, I play games, and I think I notice subtle improvements there too.
Swimming besides exercise, can be a period of reflection, contemplation, a review od grievances and general meditation. I was having trouble with numbers, not that I can’t count, but during swimming I lose count of my laps, that I’m frequently thinking of other things as I swim, and sometimes I lose track, so I resorted to a color number system, 5 sets, 8 colors, because the colors seemed to make more of an impression in my memory. (The color sequence is blue, turquoise, green, lime, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and start over, still use number sets, and I used other tracking such as the type of strokes and gear I’m using in a set pattern.)
Since I’ve been taking this medication the colors are no longer required and I’ve gone back to just numbers, but I don’t count from one to 84, my current number of pool lengths, In a set, I count 2-4-2, via stroke type, and a pattern, with a main stroke (4) in each set, and the 2s are the same in each set and through out the sets. I can keep all of this forefront in my brain even if I’m thinking of other things is all swimming.