A Blog detailing the insanity of my medical practice and the stupidity of everyday life.
Monday, May 6, 2019
Quote of the day
"I was in the ER last weekend for a seizure. They said my Dilantin level was 8. Or maybe it was 18, or 28. I don't know, it was a number with an '8' in it. Does that help?"
I am so bad with remembering numbers that I have to repeat what anyone said out loud so that the memory of what I heard stays in my head, and even then ... sometimes I see a '6' in my head when it's a '9' or a '9' when it was a '6'. I usually recall '7' because it's a lucky number. Remembering '1' or a '2' is not too hard, but when I get to '3' my ability to put the number in my head is too tired, fatigued. So, if I have to remember a three of something, I have to tell myself, "at least it wasn't an 8 or a 4' (because in certain cultures '4' is unlucky, and '8' is extremely unlucky), so, then I tell myself, 'thank goodness, nothing bad has happened today that I know about; I don't recall stepping on any broken sidewalks, no midnight-colored cats crossed my path, and I've not encountered any ladders today, but could we somehow get that number changed to 5, because there's a lot more luck associated with 5?"
I usually can't trust my memory with numbers from just out in the blue by themselves as Arabic symbols. They have to be associated with something tangible, or a word I can memorize. It's my number dyslexia. I can match paint at the hardware store without a chip and reinstall something at the exact height without measuring it (although I have to have curtain measurements written down because going into the shop there are too many distractions to recall the correct numbers.) This is not a humble brag. Dr G probably knows a neurological reason why I can't memorize numbers. Maybe, one part of my brain split off when it was developing. I usually ask for a document if it's something to report to someone.
So, far, I've managed to hide this disability from co-workers in my 30 year (or so?) career path with crib sheets and explanations that I like to consult the readily available references. Saves me a lot of grief that one's age can be explained in decades, or if a specific number is required-- just give the birth date, as a lot of programs automatically figure it out if the date is given. When my sons were younger they liked to show off their ability to recall long strings of numbers associated with pi.
Despite that, until I was in my late 50s I could recall my home phone number from before it was changed ... when I was in 4th grade and started receiving vague threats from the older brother of a girl in my school-- when it just so happened I won the school spelling bee by chance. (But, now, as I sit here, I realize it's not so clear in my head anymore. Have the old neuronal highways been closed, with detours, and new super-highways? Will it come to me crystal clear in a dream tonight?)
Society is more familiar with learning disabilities related to words, but there are also various learning disabilities related to numbers, like dyscalcula. When I was advising university students, I occasionally dealt with students who had such a learning disability -- they had managed to handle high school OK because they were excellent students, hard workers and had good memories, but everyone reaches their academic limit eventually, and for these students classes like calculus or statistics at a university level defeated them. Sometimes it meant they had to change their major to humanities or arts, instead of science or social science. It was nothing to be ashamed of, though, it was just a quirk in how their brain worked and they just had to find a way to deal with it.
"No. No, it does not."
ReplyDeleteUmm... No. That doesn't help at all.
ReplyDelete8 is a lucky number. 4, on the other hand...
ReplyDeleteI am so bad with remembering numbers that I have to repeat what anyone said out loud so that the memory of what I heard stays in my head, and even then ... sometimes I see a '6' in my head when it's a '9' or a '9' when it was a '6'. I usually recall '7' because it's a lucky number. Remembering '1' or a '2' is not too hard, but when I get to '3' my ability to put the number in my head is too tired, fatigued. So, if I have to remember a three of something, I have to tell myself, "at least it wasn't an 8 or a 4' (because in certain cultures '4' is unlucky, and '8' is extremely unlucky), so, then I tell myself, 'thank goodness, nothing bad has happened today that I know about; I don't recall stepping on any broken sidewalks, no midnight-colored cats crossed my path, and I've not encountered any ladders today, but could we somehow get that number changed to 5, because there's a lot more luck associated with 5?"
ReplyDeleteI usually can't trust my memory with numbers from just out in the blue by themselves as Arabic symbols. They have to be associated with something tangible, or a word I can memorize. It's my number dyslexia. I can match paint at the hardware store without a chip and reinstall something at the exact height without measuring it (although I have to have curtain measurements written down because going into the shop there are too many distractions to recall the correct numbers.) This is not a humble brag. Dr G probably knows a neurological reason why I can't memorize numbers. Maybe, one part of my brain split off when it was developing. I usually ask for a document if it's something to report to someone.
So, far, I've managed to hide this disability from co-workers in my 30 year (or so?) career path with crib sheets and explanations that I like to consult the readily available references. Saves me a lot of grief that one's age can be explained in decades, or if a specific number is required-- just give the birth date, as a lot of programs automatically figure it out if the date is given. When my sons were younger they liked to show off their ability to recall long strings of numbers associated with pi.
Despite that, until I was in my late 50s I could recall my home phone number from before it was changed ... when I was in 4th grade and started receiving vague threats from the older brother of a girl in my school-- when it just so happened I won the school spelling bee by chance. (But, now, as I sit here, I realize it's not so clear in my head anymore. Have the old neuronal highways been closed, with detours, and new super-highways? Will it come to me crystal clear in a dream tonight?)
Society is more familiar with learning disabilities related to words, but there are also various learning disabilities related to numbers, like dyscalcula. When I was advising university students, I occasionally dealt with students who had such a learning disability -- they had managed to handle high school OK because they were excellent students, hard workers and had good memories, but everyone reaches their academic limit eventually, and for these students classes like calculus or statistics at a university level defeated them. Sometimes it meant they had to change their major to humanities or arts, instead of science or social science. It was nothing to be ashamed of, though, it was just a quirk in how their brain worked and they just had to find a way to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteWas that in SI units or m9/100 mL?
ReplyDeleteToo funny. You can't make this stuff up...
ReplyDelete