I Walk Alone

I Walk Alone

It was proposed that something unusual happened in my brain, "functional neuerogenesis." Sounds like no big deal, but maybe my mother's words of firsthand observation will, "brain regeneration."

I address this in http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-brain.html

I've said I would have the most rewiring ever. Well, if 80% of my brain "neurogenerated", then 80% rewired (being optimistic and theoretical; 80% is the number one doctor uses). Most who had a brain injury and are on the internet have considerably less. Even in hospital care, survivors had less damage. These people also had the "semi-vegetative" classification. Most could not talk. Almost everybody was tube-fed (I saw only one eating. He could talk, but didn't always make sense, and he was on a ventilator.) In the intro of this a friend tells of how he first met me. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/02/angela.html I was placed with people supposed to die.

I use "80%" because that's how much damage I had. We don't know if all 80% repaired yet. Also, I'm still alive, so my brain can't be autopsied and removed to cut it up and see. So we can only go by observable behavior. More than half my brain was involved. I shouldn't have made it. I did have some brainstem as my heart kept beating.

Technically  if you use right now as the half-way mark, then I have 9 more years to go. So stick around for 9 years. I don't think it will be that long, though. I don't really know for sure, but there's a sensation that I associate with neurogenesis that doesn't strongly occur anymore.

Some of the most important things have already completed. One being I breathe. This would be one of those few things that can be explained by neuroplasticity, a theory. Another big thing is that I talk. I couldn't find an explanation for this until "functional neurogenesis." Functional neurogenesis already occurs in babies. Like babies say their first words, so would I. It has only happened in childhood and is thought not to happen again. So this would also be a theory.

I have tried to present only facts, but in my case it has been theory. This concept of "rewiring" everyone is talking about is a theory - neuroplasticity. What's taught in medical school is your brain is hard-wired. There is no adaptation. Once damaged, that's it. That's a view I strongly disagree with. Now I add functional neurogenesis to my repertoire.

Functional neurogenesis is another theory. I believe it to be more common than thought, which.would be the optimism from the Special Education in me. As if Psychology wasn't enough, Special Education comes along and says, "It will happen. Just give it some time." (Special Ed teachers will work for years on the same student.)

So mine is coming....