following directions

[emnic77]

I feel a little silly posting this, but I need to get it out there after today. I have never been great with directions but today I got horribly lost driving to the vet, somewhere I've been 4-5 times in the last year. I even had the map up on my GPS - and I still ended up by the side of the road, hyperventilating and trying to not have a full blown panic attack with my 5 year old and 6 week old in the car. I turned around 5 times in about a 1 mile radius, it would've been comical if it weren't so awful. This happens several times a year, it's kind of a running joke amongst friends and family, but it really bothers me. Whenever I go anywhere outside of our town, my dh or my dd's dad expect to get a phonecall from me, near tears, asking them to get me somewhere that I've tried to get and gotten lost. Then I got my iPhone and use the GPS but I still have issues. I've ended up near the RI border before when thinking I was heading towards Maine - the complete opposite direction. It's really ridiculous and I keep wondering if it's the sign of something else really wrong with me. Usually it happens on highways or other longish trips but sometimes it's close to home, local routes that I take often. I have issues with memory sometimes, but the two time I've mentioned it to my doctor it's been brushed off with "well you're a busy mom, you forget things."
I guess so, but it's concerning me - the other day I couldn't remember the name of my daughter's classroom teacher. It's not like i've met her twice or something, I see her often and see her name even more often. Her name was nowhere in my head at all. DH asks me with this new baby if DS used to do certain things - and I can't remember. I have snapshots of things in my head of his babyhood and DD1's babyhood, but I can't remember details or milestones or anything.
Is this normal? Do I just suck at getting places?

[pianojazzgirl]

Well, the forgetting your dd's teacher's name could definitely be attributable to having a 6 wk old baby. Definitely.

Also not remembering things about your older dcs' babyhoods seems pretty normal to me too. The baby months tend to be a blur, ime. And things tend to blend together in your memory (was that ds or dd?.... yk?)

Having a crappy sense of directions and difficulty following maps and directions could very well just be you. Is this something that's getting worse as the years go by, or is it something you've always had problems with? Something that might be worth thinking about: it sounds like having to find a new place is very anxiety-provoking for you (it is for me too, btw). It is very likely that the more anxious you get the more flustered you get and the more difficult it is to follow directions. I've experienced that myself. It's kind of a vicious cycle. Every time you experience it then it adds to the driving-somewhere-new-is-scary feeling in the back of your brain, which then means every time you get in that situation you start from a place filled with anxiety which means you're more likely to get lost, which just perpetuates the cycle all over again. How to break the cycle I'm not sure. But if this sounds like it's the case with you at least you have a starting point of understanding (and don't need to worry that this directional difficulty is caused by something medical, iykwim).

Besides that you could look into supplements that aid memory. Ginko is one.

ETA... though what you describe doesn't sound all that alarming to me, if your GUT is telling you that something is wrong then I think you should push your HCP to LISTEN to you and take you seriously. Don't let her/him brush you off. Say that this is REALLY REALLY bothering and worrying you. I get so peeved when I hear about dr's brushing off their patients and not taking their concerns seriously.