Get Rid of the Word "Semi-Vegetative"

I was "semi-vegetative" at this hospital. This is the computer I did my first e-mail.

I've worked in home-based care, not hospital. When the "semi-vegetative" state was mentioned, I thought that this was only seen in the hospital. A person with this never would have made it home. Now at home, I had to look it up. It kept giving me persistent vegetative state (PVS).  Something wasn't right. I asked around. This state doesn't exist in the text-books. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/02/talking-vegetable.html  

Here it is  I thought I moved up, and I hadn't. This is a false category...and a misnomer, too.


There is something that does fit this...

Behavioral criteria for the diagnosis of
Follows simple commands
Gives yes or no responses verbally or with gestures Verbalizes intelligibly Demonstrates other purposeful behavior, including nonreflexive movements or affective gestures that occur in direct relationship to relevant environmental stimuli, eg: appropriate smiling or crying in response to specific emotional stimuli vocalization or gesturing in direct response to linguistic content of questions directed reaching for objects that demonstrates a clear relationship between object location and direction of reach modification of touch or grasp to accommodate the size and shapes of objects pursuit eye movements or sustained vision fixation upon a external visual stimulus

^*At least one is required for diagnosis

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071686/

(I didn't do all of these.)

What's the word I took out? It was "MCS." This stands for minimally conscious state. 

MCS is not PVS. MCS is more appropriate if I was able to handle money. Wait a minute! I was in a whole ward of people who were "semi-vegetative." Were all those people misdiagnosed? There's a problem in not being able to move up in PVS. 

Progression would be linear, and go from PVS to MCS...not to "semi-vegetative." It's not a giant leap. Just follow the textbook.

UPDATED 7/20/2018

*Note:  I wouldn't even be MCS anymore. I'm just physically disabled.