Slipping Cogs – Massive Disconnect Between Brain and Speech (“Chemo Brain”)

• https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/12/28/168141465/another-side-effect-of-chemotherapy-chemo-brain

I think my cognition and mental acuity has improved since peak chemo and radiation, but I still find massive disconnects between my interior dialog and what I type on the screen.

In my head, I think fully formed and discrete sentences. As someone who scored nearly an 800 (perfect score) on the SAT Verbal, I prided myself on my spelling, grammar, and syntax.

Since nearly 4 years of Chemo on an equal number of chemo protocols and radiation therapy, I find that what I think is not always what I speak or what I type.

I’ve been trying to build buffers and safeguards into both my email and my web browsing. I use Grammarly and Microsoft Editor heavily, but sometimes I overlook or ignore the errors when it warns me “what you typed doesn’t make sense.”

I really need to slow down, type, read what I typed, take a deep breath, pause, and READ. IT. AGAIN.