💬 I lose my sentence halfway through and my manager has noticed

Last week I was on a call with my manager and I lost my sentence completely. Mid word. I was saying, the shipment from Dammam will reach on Tuesday, and then nothing. Blank. 5 seconds of silence. He said, hello? Are you there? I said yes. I said, what was I saying? He said, Dammam. I said right, Dammam, and then forgot it again. We both laughed. He wasn't even angry. It happens maybe 3 times a week now. Always when something pulls my eye. A man walking past, a phone buzzing. My mother says I talk too fast and my brain stays behind. She's probably right. She's always right about this. At home I just stop and say, give me a second. Her answer is always the same. Start from the beginning. It works about half the time. The other half I say, never mind, it wasn't important. It always was. I tried a trick last month. When I blank I repeat the last 2 words I said, quietly, to myself. The first time it worked. The second time I repeated them out loud and the man across the table stared. Now I just point at him and say, you finish it. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he makes it up. Last Friday at the barber he finished my sentence completely wrong and I agreed with him anyway. I'm 31. My brother says it gets worse at 35, which is 4 years away. Great. Last Friday I wrote the Dammam details on my hand before the next call. Blue pen, big letters. My manager saw it on camera and said nothing. Then he asked, is that your left hand? The shipment reached on Wednesday, a day late. Nobody noticed, which is the best kind of late.

Saying right, Dammam, and then forgetting it again is painfully familiar. I lose words mostly when I am hungry or short of sleep, so I keep a small snack in my bag during long calls. Maybe note the days it happens for 2 weeks and see what the pattern is. For me it was always after skipping lunch, and a glass of water by the laptop helps too.

Phone calls are the worst for me. A noise in the background and my sentence disappears mid word. A colleague now finishes my thoughts in meetings.