Short term memory loss, from traumatic experience. Anyone out there suffer this, how long and how did you cope

My dog, a 1yr 4 moth old rottie was taken to an opthamologist to correct a condition entropion. Entropion is where the eye lid flips towards the eye and the lashes run against the cornea, making the dog uncomfortable. Long and short of it, she was dropped off in the a.m. and I received a telephone call at 345pm stating the operation went perfectly, and words verbatim by the vet, "With your permission we would like to keep her over night so she does not "paw" at her stitches." A little worried, I agreed. The vet called me at 0804am the next morning and told me my dog hung herself while trying to escape the facility. What was a collar on her for in a holding area, more importantly...she was supposed to be monitored. I am seeing a therapist over this, and I have Acute Stress Disorder and Bi-Polar "Mixed" state. Have any of you had trauma severely to cause short term memory loss? I asked this question earlier, but haven't come across any real answers. Thank you, and please no ridicule.

August 15 this year I was caught up in a terrible earthquake and got locked in my sisters house all by myself during the almost 4 minutes it lasted.

From that day I began to have memory problems, I still don't remember what happened during the quake, I got lost twice & it so happens I was just around the corner from the house, I did not remember where I left things, I would go out and not know where to, would come back and not close the door & slept with a wide opened front door twice & could never find my keys. I would even forget to eat & sleep.

Once I became aware of this, I had a medical check up as it could have been my cholesterol or any other physical issue, but it was not. The doctor told me it was stress & that I did not want to remember what I had been through. So what I have done is this:
- Have my medicines in very small plastic bottles, one for each day and ten of those on my night table, all labeled.
- I hired a lady to do the house work, to remind me to eat and serve my food.
- I have set my night table alarm clock to the time I am supposed to go to bed.
- Have all my bills and others in separate envelopes, hung those envelopes on a rack & wrote on them what they are.& when due for payment. The driver pays the bills.
- Made four additional key sets, gave a copy to each of my two neighbor friends + one set on a small chain around my neck + the last one in charge of the driver I have known for years.
- Made an ID for myself, had it plasticized & also hang it on the chain around my neck.
- Reprogrammed my phone now only one number to get medical care from my insurance company to which I have placed one of their pink stickers and another for the Heart Trauma Center with one of their yellow stickers.
- Made a photocopy of my Insurance ID and scotch taped it to the phone.
- I don麓t read anymore nor watch TV.
- I keep my self busy exercising my memory with Internet trivia, puzzles and others that oblige me to think & remember and are also much fun.
-I have a new calendar where I write what I am supposed to do each of the comming days.
- I keep my private phone book updated, very easy to read & attached to the phone with a small chain.
- I have given back 4 of my Credit Cards to the banks, have only kept one + written instructions to not pay out anything over a certain amount, without first checking with me. I keep track of what I spend in a small note book along with my credit card.

All the above has taken away the horrible feeling of loosing my memory, I am much better now & the stress in beginning to drop day by day. What I have done has helped me to not be afraid of any possible consequences by memory loss, everything is where I can find it & under control.

This has helped me a lot though I am not yet capable of answering on Yahoo Q&A. It will come back as I get better so I don't feel any stress about it, there are some days I can not answer anything so I just forget it and use my time in the garden with the plants & listen to music.

Sorry for the long post but I had to remember all this & it has cost me a lot, I am very tired & going to bed.

Regards.

Oh, honey...I am so sorry that this happened to you and your dog. That's so terrible. As a fifteen-year- sober alcoholic and bi-polar myself, I can relate to what you've gone through. I am glad that you are able to talk about these problems. The first step in over coming it is to be open about it. To answer your question, I have had several traumatic events in my life; severe and unexpected losses of loved ones and have had problems with short-term memory loss in connection with these experiences. Have heard lots of opinions from doctors about it and they don't always agree. From my own experience I can say that it gets less severe as time passes. I still have trouble remembering details about these losses...and when I am tired or stressed, I find that I still lose words or my sense of direction or can't remember some sorts of things like names or dates. I try to keep a sense of humor about it and so far nothing terrible has happened because I've forgotten something. I make lists of things and keep them in a loose leaf notebook and keep my address and phone lists up-to-date. I keep a map in my car with post-it notes of directions for getting to places. I have a calender in which I jot down events and I review it periodically. All of these help to keep anxiety levels at reasonable loads. Again, I am very sorry for your loss, and wish you all the best! Hugs, Gina C.

usually short term memory loss is characteristic to older age people (let's say over 60-65-70 or more ,and is very variable from one individual to another,depending also on inherited genes (chromosomes which transmit particular hereditary charactyeristics of ancient family members)and is also connected to the actual general state of the individual's health.
there is a long range of disturbances (primarily mental,but also physical ones which produce phenomena of short term memory loss ,-for instance one can not remember what one did or even eat, ten or five minutes ago,or where one has put the car keys just a minute ago a.s.on).usually such disturbances are easily treatable,and many a time they appear when one is weary, tired,exhausted ,of course , a little more difficult if they are based on real old age,dementia,alzheimer disease and other similar more serious disturbances.
in your case,if your short term memory loss appeared after a shock as you explained,it might be only transitory,but in any case you should as soon as possible see your doctor especially if you never before experienced ,or experienced,such losses of memory.he will find a solution for sure.there is now very good medication for memory improvement,also for old ages.and do not ponder on reflectively too much to that incident.be aware of the fact that every living creature (dogs and other pets too) as soon as it came to light and life,is a death sentenced existence.that's the rule.there is no escape.one can not change the law of nature.one should learn to live with it.

i wish you best recovery,and please,do not forget on a short time key words like :
see doctor,loss of memory is temporary ,there are effective treatments at hand.good luck !