MS Folks, Check Your Memories!

by Jane D.
(Indiana)

My early morning wanderings online took me to a most interesting place today for MSers. I encountered a Memory Test from England which is comprehensive, short (about 15-20 minutes), and fun, (until I got the results when the adjective changed to "dismal").

People with MS often have their short-term memory leave them as one of the first symptoms. I remember I did, and it wasn't too bad for many years. My long-term memory is still largely unaffected after 36 years, but not so with the short-term. Short-term memory can usually be compensated for many ways with sticky notes, carrying around a notebook and other such aids.

This test seems to do short testing on all the areas of memory. It examines visual recognition, numbers, patterns, everyday objects, sentences, spotting differences and remembering to do things. Of course I felt I did much better than I did. The test was still structured in a kind way and didn't make me feel too bad. It was obvious to me I had some deficits as I took it. I've been wondering for some time just how bad things were. Now I know. LOL

Accept the challenge and you will too. What a neat opportunity to have some neuro-psychological testing at zero charge! You are given full results with a complete explanation, too. Here's the link--enjoy: BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind then click on Explore your memory, (or put http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody in your browser).

Afterwords, have fun investigating this engaging and informative site! There's a lot more here from our Mother country.