Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Why Am I So Weird?




Most have heard about neuroplasticity or rewiring. It hasn't been confirmed yet and I'm already moving on to the next thing, neurogenesis.

I've said what happened with me is weird, but I haven't really explained why. So here's my attempt.

To begin is my injury. I have used the video of Mike the Headless Chicken to explain that it is possible to keep on living without a brain. (I can account to when I was awake, so it also has implications of awareness of my environment minus a brain.) My initial bleed started in my cerebellum. Hours went by before I got to a hospital. By then, my brain was totally engulfed and saturated with blood.  I was still alive and surgery was done for those doing it. It was good practice since I wasn't expected to live much longer.

I did live, and this is where Mike the Headless  Chicken comes into play.  He shows it is possible to live minus a head.







This is where it gets weird. I started getting better...slowly. Maybe this was happening, "Think of all those miles and miles of myelin sheath Ms. Ronson had to laboriously re-knit to heal and reconnect her severely damaged brain.http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/09/angela-ronson-part-3-how-our-brain-is-connected-to-the-universe/ To put it in terms of Mike the Headless Chicken, he grew a new head. This is the neurogenesis I mentioned before. I wouldn't have grown a whole new head.  I would have grown new brains to go in mine. Now that's weird! (It would  be more like getting a scab from a cut, and then growing new skin.)

This all happened, THEN neuroplasticity  happened. That came years later. (Some would have happened sooner, but no brain means there's nothing to rewire to.)

As if this all isn't weird enough, I can talk about it. This is even more weird!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Living In A Virtual World


 


"Wait a minute. He's disabled."

He is in actual life, but not in virtual life. He is also a different species. Is it easier to believe he is an alien than it is he can walk?

One doctor had his followers on a social network believing I was an actual brain in a glass jar he had brought home from the hospital. He would use this picture:


I'd like to think my existence is more than that, but it wasn't very hard for people to believe I was just a pet brain in a jar.

My physical ability is limited, but my virtual ability is not.

Everything I'm doing is virtual. Things I am doing are on the computer. My situation is less of a fantasy than the above video. 

I hit the social networks. They are based upon actual life.

An example of not being virtual would be this letter, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2013/01/regrettably-matters-you-raise-in-your.html . Getting it certified and mailed required actual life, not virtual reality.

Technology makes limited movement big. It was much harder getting that above done. Small actions couldn't be amplified. I couldn't think that done.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

You Gotta Do Something

updated 7/21/2014

Neuroscience News, 5/2013 (click link for more) 

Experience Leads to the Growth of New Brain Cells (click for more)      


The illustration shows the hippocampus in the brain.
Adult neurogenesis refers to the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus. This allows the brain to react to new information flexibly. The illustration shows the location of the hippocampus in the brain.



"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."

I've used this quote before, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-brain.html It explains what happened and is happening to me. It takes "miracle" off me and puts it back on the brain. I'd say it's another "wondrous property."

I would think those new cells that are created are blank and need to be programmed. You program them with therapy and exercise. Not once, but over and over for a while. Do nothing and you see nothing. I've been exercising for years (therapy exercises not cardio-vascular exercises). There has been improvement for years.




So you gotta do somethin' if you want somethin'.


\ 
 (His hairstyle:  another "wondrous property.")


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Who Let Her Out?


This is funny to me. I'm not really following the protocol. I definitely don't fit the terms anymore.

This is what I looked like when I opened my eyes.  Actually, I looked worse at first since I couldn't sit. (I was laying in a hospital bed, on a ventilator, and could only open one eye.) I would watch her on TV, and nurses would compare her to me.


This person was PVS and so was I. We both had feeding tubes. I think her brain injury was caused by a heart attack.
 
I got more skills and started behaving like this man (after his stroke):

(There is a lot in common, like the one eye blinking and the writing. I wonder what would have happened if he lived like I have continued to live,)
  
I got a few more skills and now I'm a Talking Head with an arm.

These people in the videos above shouldn't be let out of the hospital. So how did I do it?

Maybe I've got ASS (Acquired Savant Syndrome). I wrote about it, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-want-ass.html but haven't been found to be. Maybe I'm just very smart and lucky.
 
People on networks I belong to have said they were "vegetables." They were most likely MCS (Minimally Conscious State). Rarely is the PVS (Persistent Vegetative State), as seen above, sent home. Sometimes there is a caregiver at home (thank you to those of you who do this, because your loved one can't say that). PVS are usually sent to a carehome. I've been to a couple. They die there. I came close, but I could navigate the system. It wasn't easy, but I got out of the hospital system. (It took years.)

Some know what I mean when I say I do a more medical Independent Living now that I'm out. Some of the things in my house look like they came from the hospital. I don't have a regular bed. I have a semi-automatic hospital bed. There's also a feeding pole. It's much the same as an  IV pole. My feedings are hung from it like you would hang an IV. Independent Living itself is not medical. It is the philosophy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_living. I have medical needs, therefor my Independent Living is medical in nature.

This is definitely not the same!
 
I came across the following video:  (I was in that state he describes right before MCS.)


EXACTLY WHAT HE SAYS! I was in that "grey area." Now I'm talking and standing, and still diagnosed to be in that grey aea. Once PVS is always PVS. I disagree with that. Since I didn't progress quickly enough in consciousness, I definitely don't get adequate services now. If I don't, then others don't either. As a former service provider, I give what I can to myself and others.

_________________________________

As far as going back to a hospital...and it's signed too, so you will get it:


(Don't watch if you oppose the use of the "f" word.)

I was in care 2002-2006. I was shuffled to many different hospitals and nursing homes. If your address is to where you live, then my address was the hospital address. I choose not to live in the hospital. No one "let me out." I followed the rules and saw an opportunity to get out. I'm not going to say how I did it. Just be happy I did.