Imagine that you wake up, and forget everything about your life. You don't recognize your friends, family or significant other. Now imagine that happens to you every week. It sounds like the plot of the movie 50 First Dates, but it isn't fiction.
For Jenny Gisby, a 20-year-old from Nottingham, UK it is reality. She was stricken with a rare and crippling memory disorder called Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) that put her in a coma for a few days. When she woke up from that coma, the disorder also took away her ability to walk or have any feeling in her legs, and now she is completely paralyzed from the waist down and relies heavily on her family.
Along with FND, Gisby suffers from seizures and will wake up with no recollection of her life and be unable to recognize people around her. Though she needs their help, she will wake up not knowing who they are or who she even is. When this happens, it takes her at least half an hour upon waking up to start to remember things about her life.
It is difficult on Jenny's family to see her this way, but it was hard for her too because she knew how distressing it was for them to try and explain who they were and what they meant to each other. It was especially hard on Jenny's partner of three years, Stuart Balmforth, to realize that she didn't know who he was.
That is when Jenny decided to make a scrapbook and photo album to help jog her memory. Inside she keeps lots of photographs, train tickets, concert and festival memorabilia and mementos from Stuart about milestones in their relationship. They are constantly adding to the booklet with new memories and places they've gone. They do it together and as soon as they can so that Jenny can be a part of the process.
Both of them agree, its helped her remember things much faster than she could before. Jenny used to get frustrated trying to force herself to remember things, but now with the memory book, its become a much more pleasurable experience remembering her life. She says, "its lovely being able to witness all of mine and Stuart's memories again, it's like I'm falling in love with him all over again."
Stuart enjoys looking through the book with her now because he knows that thanks to the book, she will never really forget all the things they've done together.
