The Traffic Was Harder than The Cognitive Testing

Yesterday's cognitive memory test started with a test through traffic. It's "any season except Winter" in Minnesota, and road construction is in full swing. The main freeway joining the downtown areas of Minneapolis and St Paul is under construction - MAJOR construction. So, what should have been a quick and easy drive of 20-30 minutes, even in "rush hour" turned into a drive of almost an hour. 

Although this photo is from the St Paul construction, 
it's the same in Minneapolis, maybe even worse. There 
are only two seasons in Minnesota - Winter and 
Road Construction. It doubles your time on the freeway. 

Then we had to find the Purple parking ramp - a task in itself because the hospital complex is ALSO undergoing major construction and road changes. Once we found the Purple ramp, and got the car parked, we needed to find the correct building in a maze of buildings. We were directed here and there, and actually arrived at the appropriate receptionist within two minutes or so of the scheduled appointment time. A miracle! 

There are Sister Kenny Institute locations 
in or near most of the major hospitals in 
this country. I'm not sure about world-wide. 
She was quite the woman - didn't let much 
stop her from helping people to walk again. 

The Doc was great - younger, but not too young, and sincerely interested in whatever we wanted to say. He offered to allow us individual interview time with him, but both DH and I opted to just stay together in the room and say whatever we needed to say. I was given the choice of returning for the advanced memory test at a later date, or taking it right away. "Right away, please", was my immediate response. So within 10 minutes or so I was in a smaller room with a lovely young woman. 

My advanced cognitive test covered all of these 
areas and it was rather like playing a lot of games 
similar to games I played with my Mother while 
I was growing up. I actually surprised myself by 
thoroughly enjoying the exam. 

I loved the test. I mean, there were certainly parts that I stumbled over - like remembering a two sentence complex story word for word, (we tried that twice, I muddled the first time and totally wrecked the second). But so many of the tasks took me back to my childhood games that Mom and I used to play on rainy afternoons. Just pencil and paper games. I don't think you can truly pass or fail a test like this. It encompasses a lot of different actions and activities. But I know I had some excellent results, and some not so great ones. I'll be very interested to talk to the Doc (I'm opting for a virtual visit because NO - don't want to be dealing with that road construction again!). I think he said 2-3 weeks, but it isn't in my calendar yet. 

I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the various exams 
in my cognitive testing session. There were definitely some 
stumbles, but a lot of serious successes as well. I'm looking 
forward to seeing the results. 

So, if you're even called upon for an advanced memory screening test, don't sweat it. It's just a lot of games and I loved almost every bit of it. Now if only our estate planning was going as smoothly, but that's mostly up to DH, and he's a harder nut to crack. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini