Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Neurological Epidemic




Medicine is now that good. So good in fact that we need to start thinking about other things. Brain injury is part of this Neurological Epidemic. Not only will people survive long enough to get Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, but people deemed "semi-vegetative" will live long enough to be able to effectively communicate. My "brain injury" was both, an AVM stroke and TBI. I was deemed "semi-vegetative" yet I now wrote this. I'd like to think medicine has progressed so far, that  a person like myself will take these steps. I would be part of this neurological epidemic. Not every coma wll wake up, just like not every senior will get Alzheimer's, but there will be some. Is that enough?

Did I communicate effectively?

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Give A Little Bit

That neuropathway I'm making, it's the whole thing. So, making it and wiring it. My body made it and now it needs to be guided through the wiring process. That would be two processes. First is making it, then using it. It's actually been seen to happen in special education-a student "doesn't get it" until years later. The people that notice are usually the student and family. School personnel may not. They may not be the originators. But records exist. There's something called an IEP.

With me doing all these things years later, I kept thinking of a kid of about 15 years old a while back. He would walk with assistance from the living room to his bedroom in a care home. His parents probably started in Kindergarten by writing walking as a goal. He probably had to wear special leg splints and have regular physical therapy. Every year, that goal would be looked at and the daily activities increased in difficulty. The staff may be different, but the paper is the same.

And so it has been with me. People will look and think, "she's getting it!" Really though, it's not a miracle. I just had a goal years ago, and did daily activities (this included therapy, exercises, etc.) that progressively got harder. "Progressively getting harder" would sometimes be a very minute change. A lot of times it would be no change at all-just maintain and get used to it. It was just a little bit. So, give a little bit...