Well, I did eventually find it… In the microwave; 3 or 4 days later when the stench took over the kitchen! This happened some time ago, and silly little things like this are happening to me every day now, much more often. Not monumentally catastrophic, but annoying and life changing just the same. Things that seem harmless, and not particularly meaningful to others when they see them happen, because they only see them happen once, in that particular instant, and don’t see what it is like for it to happen all day. This is of course, part of the reason why so many people make comments, but I’m just like that, or my mother is just like that, or you don’t have dementia. Most don’t see the erosion of confidence, and then the eroding of self-esteem in people living with a diagnosis, and the symptoms of, dementia. Only very close family, who live with you all of the time, see the subtle changes, or get to see the severity and frequency of the symptoms of dementia; meeting over a cup of coffee or a meal does not give anyone the time to understand the significance of the symptoms of dementia, and unless we are dribbling into our soup or running away or behaving in other dementia-obvious ways, we are not believed, or at the very least doubted. It is in the earlier stages of dementia, too easy to wing it, to cover up your memory loss of behaviour changes. It is easy to reach across for the salt and pepper, rather than ask for it if you have forgotten what they are called. It is easy to wonder around the house starting jobs and not getting them finished; no one sees them as unfinished business that has been going on sometime for days, merely a job in progress. My lists and notes, and the Outlook calendar reminding me not just daily, but many times a day help me complete the things I want to do, as well as my own resolve and determination to keep fighting against the symptoms of dementia, and, my BUB (Back Up Brain). I’d love to see research that looks at how people manage the symptoms of dementia, especially how they do it without drugs. People like Richard Taylor and Christine Bryden, instead of just being listened to when they speak, perhaps should have been studied, had proper clinical investigations into how they are surviving longer, and more productively than their prognosis initially determined. We are now standing up and speaking out, together, those of us with dementia, and the people who love us and support us, enabling us to continue to live meaningful and active lives. We now need the policy makers and researchers not only to start listening, but to make real changes to improve our lives.