The Case of the Missing Earring (Chemo Brain?!)

[ssjmichael]

So about a week ago, after my mom and I came back from doing groceries, I heard my mom yell from the bathroom "I lost an earring!". She was holding one in her hand, and was quite sad to see the other one wasn't anywhere to be found. After looking all around the house, the search party was called off, and it was declared lost.

Right away, I decided to search high and low online to find a similar pair for her. After a couple of hours, I managed to find a very close match on ebay, and immediately bought it for around $15.

Fast-forward to yesterday, and once again my mom yells from the bathroom, but this time it's to say "I found the earring!". Apparently it was found just a couple of inches from where she usually stores her jewelry. So that begged the question, what happened?? My working theories are that she either forgot to put both on in the morning, or she took one off, put it away, and then totally forgot by the time she took the 2nd one off.

This initially made me panic, thinking my mom has finally lost it, or that the cancer has spread to her brain, etc... But I decided to calm down, and come to this site instead. I searched "brain, and found no shortage of ladies discussing "chemo brain", and its (sometimes funny) effects on the memory.

And to top it off, the new pair I ordered just arrived today. I still plan to surprise her with it on Mother's Day, which is May 13th here in the US. I figure that gives her enough time to lose, and then miraculously find the original ones a couple more times again!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this little anecdote, as we could all use some lighthearted stuff now and then. I've included a photo of the old, and new pair.

-Michael

[Yoshbosh]

Ah Michael! Yes, the struggle is real!! I tried opening my front door with the remote central locking key for my car. Took me a while to figure out why I couldn’t get in the house, and why the light on my car kept flashing.

I’m sure your mom will love her new earrings 😉

Vicki

[Emsymits]

Don't expect the chemo brain symptoms to wear off completely... I spent a few minutes in the supermarket carpark yesterday cursing that my keyfob wasn't working properly then realised that my car wasn't opening as I was pressing the lock button, despite checking twice...

[AndreeP]

Awww our faithful companion brain fog! If earrings were the worse of it. Haha. I’ve known women who’ve done groceries twice in one day... I myself have a relayed a message, only to forget what I relayed ten minutes later.... my family laugh with me now and I travel with a notebook to jot things down....

[Di16]

I believe another symptom of chemo brain is saying a different word from the one you are thinking of. At Christmas with my family, we were playing a game. I was asked to list farm animals. I meant to start with pigs, sheep & cows. It came out pigs, sheep & carrots! I think my teenaged grandchildren thought I'd finally completely lost it!

[bamboo89]

This is interesting - I'd no idea chemo did this to the brain, sounds like baby brain when you're pregnant, or early stage dementia... but to be honest, I often go to get something and its not there, and I spend ages rummaging around looking for it, and a few hours later, I go back to where it should be and there it is - and I'm not pregnant, not on chemo (yet) and haven't got dementia. I reckon its gremlins!

[Hidden]

I went for my blood check recently. I parked my car in the multi level parking facility. Went to the office had my blood taken. Returned to my car about 30 minutes later. My car was running, I had never turned it off. Chemo brain, never had this happen before.

[lorraine71-Australia]

My chemo brain moment I went shopping called into the newsagents then push my trolley load of grocerys to the car, only to realize as I was about to put them into the car that, I had not done any shopping quickly went back with the grocerys. Lorraine xx😀

[Nancy222]

Sadly, I've done most of those things before chemo. Heh.