It's On A Line

I'm going to pick on this definition, because it is not possibly true since I am the one writing this.The definition I am using comes from  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/persistent+vegetative+state. There are many others, but this uses the word, "irreversible."

   persistent vegetative state

n

(Medicine) Med an irreversible condition, resulting from brain damage, characterized by lack of consciousness, thought, and feeling, although reflex activities (such as breathing) continue Abbreviation PVS

If this was "irreversible", then I wouldn't be writing this. I was thinking the definition of MCS, minimally conscious state could just be tweaked, but you will see this, too, will need major revision.


http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/minimally+conscious+state 

Minimally conscious state
Classification and external resources
MeSH	D018458

A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a condition distinct from coma or the vegetative state,^[1] in which a patient exhibits deliberate, or cognitively mediated, behavior^[2] often enough, or consistently enough, for clinicians to be able to distinguish it from entirely unconscious, reflexive responses.
Auditory processing can differ between MCS and PVS.^[3] fMRI response to the patient's own name has been suggested as a technique to distinguish between MCS and PVS.^[4]

Prognosis

Patients with severe brain damage may progress through stages of unconsciousness with eyes closed (coma), to unconsciousness with eyes open (vegetative state), to a stage of "inconsistent, erratic responsiveness" (minimally conscious state). ^[5]
It is not known whether patients in MCS can process emotion. MCS is thought to have a more favorable outcome than persistent vegetative state.^[6]
Doctors in the USA recently succeeded in bringing a man who had been under MCS for six years back to consciousness by planting electrodes deep inside his brain. ^[7]



I see PVS as occurring on a linear progression of consciousness. It occurred in me prior to MCS.

   CONSCIOUSNESS

_____________________________________________________________________>>> COMA               PVS                 MCS                    EMERGING CONSCIOUSNESS                              

What I experienced was closer to the diagram in http://www.coma.ulg.ac.be/inform.html. This lists Locked-In Syndrome (LIS) as a separate state. LIS can be separate, but in my case it wasn't. It was intertwined with the PVS and MCS states.

 

BOTH PVS AND MCS WOULD BE ON THIS LINE. They are not separate states of consciousness.