Summary

In Chapter 5, Christine wrote about the role of short-term memory. For example, a person uses short-term memory repeatedly while cooking. Put a pan of water on to boil and a skillet of oil to heat while chopping onions for pasta. Short-term memory prompts the chef to put the onions in the skillet, the pasta in the boiling water, and what to do next. Christine would forget why the pans were on the stove while she chopped the onions and would take a nap while all the water boiled away in the stockpot. She stopped cooking for a year after the stroke. She wrote about the horror of trying to read a menu. She could not remember what she read, nor could she remember what food tasted like or what she liked. She ultimately could not make a decision and began to order hamburgers...