Wednesday, March 28, 2012

New Brain



Dr Morse's blog, http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/08/angela-ronson-part-2-consciousness-heals-the-brain/ can be quite confusing. I'll pull out something that is quite astonishing:  "Functional neurogenesis means that new brain cells grow deep within an area of the brain called the hippocampus, and then migrate to specific areas of the brain where they are needed.  These new brain cells then permit new functions or repair damaged functions in the brain." This is the process he believed happened in my brain.
 
I have a new brain? Not exactly. When you have a cut, new cells move to the area and repair it. You see a scab and eventually skin. Something like that happened, but with my brain.
 
Recently there has been a woman in the news who re-grew her breast, I re-grew my brain. If this is true or not is to be determined, but it took me more than enough years.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Not Done Yet

 
 
My sister was visiting. "You're talking better than last time."  I should have improvement. Just because I was "found" doesn't mean I stop. Let's look at a phrase, "is even starting to walk again", http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/08/angela-ronson-part-2-consciousness-heals-the-brain/  That right there means the process isn't done.
 
Here it is in full context, "Yet she has made a full neuro-psychiatric recovery, with her personality and memories basically the same as prior to her massive brain injury. She speaks, can use her arms and fingers, and  is even starting to walk again!" I only made "recovery" enough to be declared "recovery." That doesn't say "all done."
 
There could be many more years or just a week until I'm "all done".
 
"Probably,  since time doesn’t exist in this all knowledge state, Angela didn’t realize that it would be seven long excruciatingly difficult years to fix her brain." http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/09/angela-ronson-part-3-how-our-brain-is-connected-to-the-universe/ It could be 7 more years for the whole process to be done. I don't think so, though. That's just professional opinion as a developmental specialist. We see cognitive skills complete, with lacking in motor. "Talking sounding better" would be improvement in oral-motor skills, and probably maturity of the voice and vocal production. I would doubt many more years, but I can only work so fast.
 


 

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Dualism: The Mind and The Brain

 THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

I can say they are definitely two separate things. How? You are reading this.  You have to know my story. In the past, someone in my condition wouldn't be able to communicate with you. But technology is changing that. Look at this video, but watch how he is communicating:  
 

Just because his body doesn't work doesn't mean he can't think. I used to have something similar to that computer set-up. A dot of some sort of material was placed on my forehead and I'd play a game to learn how to manipulate a cursor on a computer screen, a head mouse! I've been in the same boat. As time went on I didn't need that. I started making sounds which led to talking, and it has been documented that I now type with one finger. "Angela Ronson suffered a major AVM bleed and stroke with massive injury to her entire brain.  She was in a coma, semi-coma, and ultimately the “locked in syndrome” for a total of 7 years.  Yet she has made a full neuro-psychiatric recovery, with her personality and memories basically the same as prior to her massive brain injury. She speaks, can use her arms and fingers, and  is even starting to walk again!" http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/08/angela-ronson-part-2-consciousness-heals-the-brain/

So, I obviously had ideas in my mind, but not the brain capacity to get them out. They would have to be two separate things then. It has been taught, "The brain is the mind." I say that is only part of it.

What is the soul? According to dictionary.com it is "the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part." I don't think of the soul as thinking. I think of the mind doing that, though.

So all this time I was in a body with no working brain (other than bodily functions), yet I still had thoughts and ideas in my mind. That makes a strong case for two separate things.





 
***
Brain injury,
I am saying your mind is still the same. Your brain is different.  


Updated  12/11/2018
 

Friday, March 23, 2012

Neuroplasticity Created Rain Man



NEUROPLASTICITY 
CREATED RAIN MAN


I have increased knowledge after a brain injury, when many do not. This happened due to the rewiring process. The following is an excerpt of a conversation on a social network. I worked with this person. I used to advocate for individuals with disabilities in a former job position. The kind of knowledge needed for that was quite extensive.The quote shows just how far this knowledge goes now.

--------------------
Angela Ronson
Long time no hear from. Anyway, remember how I had all that disability law knowledge?
http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/03/vegetable-not.html (Obviously I still have all my faculties.)

Hi Angela! Yes I remember. And I think your knowledge regarding disability rights has increased since then. I've been reading your blog and posts. I'm in absolute awe of you! And I'm fascinated by your journey. There is so much we don't know about the brain and neuroplasticity. Your continued recovery is a good example of that. You my dear need to write a book.

------------------
Back in my 1st yr of Psychology I remembered something about multiple copies of a memory are made and are stored in various places of the brain. We don't use all these copies, hence a lot of information is forgotten...but it is still there. (Remember that grade school teacher who said "Apply yourself"?) Now in neuroplasticity the brain will rewire. Since I lost the original wiring to a memory, my brain rewired to a copy. There were many copies, though, so my brain just rewired to all of them (at least most). This would explain my increased knowledge. I didn't learn anything new. It was always there. (I'm finally applying myself.) This also explains a great deal of music, movies, and TV programs being mixed in. There was a great deal of this in my childhood, therefore a great deal of multiple memory copies. (Let the TV be the babysitter.) Neuroplasticity also rewired to these. I really don't have "increased knowledge", rather an increased use of knowledge.

Also, since the rewiring happened directly, something unusual occurs: "...allowed Peek’s neurons to make new and unusual connections between his right and left hemispheres." This is about Kim Peek http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-did-the-absence-of-the-corpus&WT.mc_id=SA_Twitter_sciammind  Peek had no corpus callosum. Memories were directly wired. This explains why I  have some of his qualities. I discussed this issue and didn't know why I was so much like him. (note: I don't remember as many facts, because I never learned them.)



1/1/2013
The multiple copies theory of memory is widely used today:  http://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-redundancy-in-human-memory


10/18/2015
updated

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Vegetable? Not!

Updated 3-1-2014 ; 6-29-2016; 10-8-2019




(My recovery is a separate issue. This only deals with the legal matter.)



To say I'm a vegetable would be deceptive. So what does that say about the American government? Do they really say that you ask? Yes they do. Let me explain.

When I opened my eyes, doctors determined I was brain dead and life support was to be removed. Before that could happen, I responded by blinking my eyes. I was given a PVS or Persistent Vegetative State status. Now if you look at the case of Terri Schiavo, she had this PVS diagnosis. What happened to her would determine the outcome of anyone with a PVS (and brain injury too) diagnosis. With her it was determined there could be no recovery from PVS. Just keep this fact in the back of your mind. We will come back to this.

Now go to my situation. I had slow progression, eventually talking. I was classified "semi-vegetative" but really had no clue what that was. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/02/talking-vegetable.html I thought I was rid of the PVS diagnosis. Actually, I wasn't. I didn't realize there was a court ruling determining my situation. What had happened was doctors couldn't really move me up. They came up with the term "semi-vegetative" meaning nothing more than semi-PVS. So I was still PVS.

FRUSTRATION! Why couldn't I shake this thing? There had to be some sort of rule somewhere. I looked more at the Terri Schiavo case. It was a right-to-life case, but what she had would set the standard for others who had the same problems. She had PVS. Also, she had a brain injury. Her outcome would set the precedent for all PVS and brain injury patients. It was determined no progress would happen therefore it would be okay to end her life.

"No progress would happen." No progress in PVS, and no progress in brain injury. That's why I couldn't shake it. It was legally determined I would make no progress. That's not the truth, though. In an e-mail, "The fact that you can communicate in an intelligent manner is proof in and of itself!" I've been doing lots of things that are cognizant. Yet, I still have the PVS diagnosis. I'm a "talking vegetable."

This issue will have to be dealt with, because if I wanted to, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-you-wanna-hack.html The Florida Supreme Court made the diagnosis permanent. Once you have it, you always have it. There can be no progress. If, in the future, a person with PVS gets better, he/she can rob a bank and not be charged. PVS already makes the person incompetent, and you can't charge an incompetent person. (Incidentally, researchers this is why your funding is drying up.)
Science and politics are getting mixed together.  One discipline is more free to make changes and I'm stuck with a label.



I'm not really vegetative. No one knows what I am. I say recovered conscious. Before this it was a lawsuit over Workman's Comp. First they were saying it was lunch break. It was after when I went to the clinic. My bleed came from an  AVM. These things are congenital (born with). It was ruled a pre-existing condition and I lost. 

George W Bush was President. Oh, I worked for a county, which is small-time govt. Obama cleaned up that clause, but I wasn't grandfathered in. Problem now is that I'm still alive.



Sunday, March 11, 2012

It's Hard To Find A Caregiver

You may eventually need one. They are not what you think. I happen to have two. The following don't work for me anymore (thank goodness):
 
First, there's Half-Ass.  She's through the state program.  So government.  Government will give you a Pinto, as opposed to a Cadillac.  Hey, I'd be satisfied with a Ford Escort.  So not only am I given the bare minimum, but the worker also has an attitude against her employer and barely does the job.  
 
Then there's Half Whit.  She's private pay.  Actually, reduced rent in exchange for care.  Here's an example.  She wanted to know why she had to use the cans of Ensure in the refrigerator when making my drink, and not the ones in the cupboard.  (Excuse me, doesn't your beer come out of the refrigerator?)  
 

I saw this long ago:


You can get the above two like I did. Sometimes it's worse. You get druggie and thief (had them too). It's hard to find Carrie the Caregiver.
  

Saturday, March 3, 2012

So You Wanna Hack?



I've been getting "better", and no one knows why yet. That isn't the scary part. What's scary is what I can learn and then tell you. I haven't had the desire to do this, but I could:

  • Angela Ronson If my computer hacking skills were strong, I'd hack the federal reserve and put an extra dollar in SSI n SSDI checks. Not much, but when u figure they cut a billion checks, that's a billion dollars.

Now if you want to learn how to hack, it's as easy as going to YouTube and watching a video. YouTube has a slew of them. Not all of them are good, but watch enough of them and you'll eventually learn a few tricks.

I've learned what I needed, but this is a good, easy way to learn more.

Now it's scary.



(I thought about putting links to videos here, but that would mean I have to watch them to find good ones. If I watched them, I'd learn them. I'd rather not.)