Have you ever walked into a room and suddenly wondered why you went there; one of those moments when your feet know where to go, but your brain doesn’t? For many of us living with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s, these lapses can feel unsettling, even a little scary. Yet they’re also clues about how our brains are changing and how we can learn to support them. As I moved into the maintenance phase of my Leqembi treatment, I began to understand these moments in a new way, and what I discovered has reshaped how I navigate daily life.

 I recently completed nearly eighteen months of Leqembi infusions and was preparing to move into the “maintenance” phase. As part of that shift, my neurologist repeated the same blood tests that had originally helped diagnose mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s: the beta-amyloid and tau counts. This time, those numbers were finally in the normal range. It was the first undeniable evidence that Leqembi truly had slowed the buildup of amyloid plaque in my brain. I felt hopeful, a breakthrough was taking shape.

 But that hope was shaken a bit when my doctor also repeated the screening test similar to the Mini-Mental State Exam, the same test that had set me on this journey in the first place. My results were unchanged. Once again, they suggested the possibility of cognitive decline. Soon after, my Neuro Rehabilitative Psychologist gave me a longer set of neuropsychological tests. Those confirmed that I still had mild cognitive impairment, and they showed something else: my very short-term memory had slipped slightly since the first evaluation.

 For a moment, I felt crushed. Part of me had held onto an unreasonable hope that Leqembi would restore the memory I’d already lost. I had to remind myself what I logically knew all along—neurons already damaged by Alzheimer’s don’t come back. The brain simply can’t rebuild what has been lost. But what the brain can do, and what mine had already been doing, is to create workarounds. It recruits other neurons and forms alternate pathways to perform the same tasks. It isn’t perfect, and it isn’t fast, but it’s remarkable.

 One of the biggest challenges I face is short-term memory. These memories haven’t yet moved into working memory or long-term memory, so they’re fragile. That’s why I sometimes forget five words in fifteen minutes, or why I walk from one room to another and immediately lose track of my purpose. My doctor explained that these lapses are often linked to slow processing speed, something commonly affected in Alzheimer’s.

Processing speed is your brain’s ability to hold information in mind while using it. When the frontal lobes and parietal networks become less efficient, attention and working memory falter. Suddenly you lose track of what you’re doing, struggle to switch mental tasks, or need extra time to sort through your thoughts.

 Dr. Geddes gave me a metaphor that made everything click: Imagine a car with 200,000 miles on it. When it was new, you could hit the gas pedal and feel the surge of acceleration instantly. But over time, the fuel line becomes clogged. The car still accelerates, just slower. That’s what happens with our brains. The engine is running, but the acceleration isn’t what it used to be.

The good news is that our brains, much like the rest of our bodies, can adapt when we train them. I’ve dealt with bursitis in my shoulder and arthritis in my lower back. Physical therapy taught my muscles new patterns that relieved the pain. The same concept applies to cognitive symptoms: identify the problem, then retrain the brain.

 Take the example of moving from one room to another and forgetting why I’m there. That used to happen often. Now I use “self-talk.” Before I move, I say out loud what I’m going to do: twice. It anchors the thought long enough for my slowed processing to carry it forward. It feels awkward at first, but like any physical therapy exercise, it becomes second nature with practice.

 Another challenge is holding several words in memory for even a short period. Yet oddly, I never have trouble remembering six-digit verification codes for my email or banking apps. That’s because I automatically use chunking, the same strategy we all use to remember phone numbers: area code, prefix, number. Our brains love patterns, it’s one of the easiest workarounds to leverage when memory falters.

One of the moments that scared me most was forgetting the name of my neighbor of twenty years. After that, I started practicing her name and eventually the names of her children and several other neighbors; repeating them occasionally to reinforce the pathway. Now those names come to me easily again. Repetition carved new routes where old ones once existed.

 The truth is simple: Alzheimer’s destroys some pathways, but the brain is still capable of building new ones. Our job is to help it by practicing the specific strategies we need most. Workarounds aren’t just coping mechanisms, they’re tools of independence.

 And we don’t have to figure them out alone. One resource that helped me tremendously is neurologist Tracey Marks on YouTube. Her videos explain memory lapses clearly and compassionately. Two of her most insightful ones, “Why You Forget” and “The Real Reason You Forget”, helped me understand my room-to-room problem and gave me practical steps to improve it.  Marks’ videos are address executive function and many other psychological problems that arise with Alzheimer’s.

 If you’ve noticed moments of forgetting why you walked into a room, losing track of thoughts, or struggling with short-term memory, don’t brush it off or assume nothing can be done. Your brain is still capable of adapting, rebuilding, and creating new pathways, no matter your diagnosis or age. Start practicing simple workarounds today to strengthen your independence: use self-talk, chunk information, rehearse names, and seek out tools and guidance that support your cognitive health. The earlier you begin retraining your brain, the more control you maintain over your daily life. You deserve support, hope, and practical strategies and your future self will thank you for taking action now.