Sunday, November 30, 2014

Neurons That Fire Together, Wire Together




So neurosculpting...that's what they are calling it now. I've just called it physical and occupational therapy with neurophysiology knowledge.

In the above video, this person gives the example of her client having fisted hands. She specifically relates this to holding horse reigns prior to the accident. I guess in my case I could say holding the steering wheel of my car, but I don't. Besides, there was a time gap after driving.

Instead I have related fisted hands to decorticate/decerebrate posturing. Look at the picture and pay close attention to the hands. They are fisted. This posturing would occur in damage to certain parts of the brain. This picture shows more severe damage. Posturing will be less severe in lesser injuries.

Look at the feet. I wonder...I wouldn't be surprised if there is a connection to dropfoot.

     
The next part of this "sculpting" of movement by applying neurology knowledge comes from an old saying: "neurons that fire together wire together."



Digits should move together. Don't worry about finger individuation yet. First get movement established, then being able to move each finger by itself can be worked on. Raking and scooping, then an inferior pincer grasp (thumb against side of forefinger), and finally a neat pincer grasp (pinching) is the progression.

Once movement is firmly established, then exercises to develop individual fingers can be implemented. Don't worry things are moving together. Be happy they are moving. No movement would be more serious damage to a neural pathway.

That saying, "neurons that fire together, wire together," can be applied to all movement. Not just the fingers, but the arms and legs. If one does it then take the other along. (If you do leg lifts with one leg, then do that with the other. It may just be less.)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Supersonic Hearing

VIDEOS UPDATED 4/7/2017
 
"You must have supersonic hearing or something,"
"Yes I do."




I am extremely low vision. I can see up to 7ft away with my left eye and 3-5 feet with my right. It was less, so I have hopes for more.

My first memory is of hearing something. I was most likely still in a deep coma. This is represented in lighter coma at the end in coma scales. It was a buzzer or alarm. It was annoying, and I thought it my alarm clock. I was sleeping good! I didn't want to wake up. I later found out the ventilator had an alarm and the noise was that.







I had been asleep for 5 weeks.

That was 12 years ago. I was classified as in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) when I woke. It became "Permanent." Some call that a coma. I disagree. Do I appear vegetative? Do I appear like I'm in a coma?

Sunday, November 23, 2014

No Neuro Is No Concern

 

I'm surprised this issue doesn't concern people:  I do not have a neurologist, nor do I receive any neurological care.

I had brain surgery in 2004 to remove my AVM (arteriovenous malformation). This was the cause of my brain injury. My current medical plan was to leave it, treat it with medication, and wait for it to explode and kill me. This plan was not optimal. Stanford University offered something unusual but risky. They would try to shrink and remove the AVM. The procedure was not covered. It fell under research and was taken care of by the university.

I had been diagnosed as being in a Persistent (I think it changed to 'Permanent' at this time) Vegetative State, so I only received necessary daily care and general medical.

The surgery was successful. Instructions to follow-up with a neurologist never happened. The routine follow-up does not happen. I should get annual neurological appointments. I don't.

I was diagnosed as being vegetative way back before the surgery. The state was deemed 'Permanent.' Although my danger of dying was removed, and what I have gone through more closely resembled MCS (Minimally Conscious State), I am permanently vegetative.

The government has gone as far as to e-mail me and explain to me that I am in a coma. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/05/dear-vegetable.html
 
I don't get anything but general medicine. I get regular GI appointments because I have a feeding tube. I saw a neurologist once when I got out of the hospital only because I pushed for it. It was not routine.

Vegetative persons don't get much other than nursing home care and basic medical. I don't even get all that now, as I am not in care. I get basic medical.

(Why would a vegetative person not be in care such as family or care home? The diagnosis I have is not right.)

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Drive



I question myself...Did I get these special abilities after a brain injury...or did I always have them? I've just had to rely on them now. They have been there. I just didn't use them.

I've always been smart; super-smart. Pull-out in school started in the 4th grade. In junior high I remember using the local college library for my research papers. I left high school at 16 (tested out). Started college a month later at 17. Schooling was always easy for me.
 
Holding focus was not as easy. Even my AA and BA are in two different majors. I think it was my senior year in college that I changed my major from business to psychology. My MA is a third major, Special Education. I could hold my attention...just not keep focus.

There's another trait I've always had...music. I played piano quite a bit. There was also guitar. I also did a year of trumpet. All came fairly easy. Now that I am unable to play an instrument due to disability, music theory continues.


Writing was something I knew how to do, but I only did it when I needed to. Now I need to write. It's my means of communication. I'd dare say, this man communicates emotion through painting. Although he has words, feelings are not expressed that way.

 

At 2:59, if you sit for hours working on the same thing, it's going to happen.

Focus and drive are more intense now after the brain injury. Intelligence has been there. I've focused on myself, so I've applied the intelligence to myself.

I see my knowledge as a free commodity, and have therefor shared it, https://plus.google.com/114061315171466252323/posts/iMnFUwnweU6 It doesn't matter where the knowledge comes from. Sure you can cite the source, but we don't cite our parents (or caretaker) for knowing our ABC's.


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

It Gives Hope



What happens if I'm given Savant Syndrome?  Well...it means I'm conscious, which is important to me. It also gives hope to the tons of brain injury survivors and their families. I got a winning lottery ticket. There is one! So often brain injury survivors are told there is no hope. Me having Savant Syndrome makes this not true.

The person who does this will be fighting a big issue sometimes referred to as NEUROLOGICAL NIHILISM "A neurological nihilism—a sense that treatment for many brain problems was ineffective or even unwarranted—had taken hold, and it spread through our culture, even stunting our overall view of human nature. Since the brain could not change, human nature, which emerges from it, seemed necessarily fixed and unalterable as well." http://www.normandoidge.com/?page_id=1639 This issue is big. It doesn't affect a few countries, but the whole world.

I see the countries in my blog stats. It's not just a few. There are many. There are countries I never heard of. The issue of me not being conscious is global. "Come to Spain," not said in that way, but I'm too busy waving my American flag. (Actually, there was a doctor in Spain. His broken English gave that message.) It's too risky for me to move to another country.
 
There is a local issue tied to this. A bit ago, a woman with a brain injury caused by a medical condition, had her feeding tube removed. She died. It held lots of controversy. I've been stuck on this one a while. Then it hit me the other day...apply the same thinking we do to late-term abortion. This woman's tube was removed rather late in the game. It was highly controversial . I look  at old videos and question her level of consciousness. Like late-term abortion rules, this would still be controversial, but what happened to her wouldn't have happened. I noticed a hole in her neck. Removal from ventilator early on would have been better. Time limits will have to be developed as not all situations involve a ventilator.

As it is now, the current ruling can be applied to me. I'm obviously not vegetative anymore. This is what happens when the word "persistent" is changed to "permanent." My lack of consciousness persisted, but it wasn't permanently gone. Since the word was changed, I am now permanently without consciousness. This ruling is also in part responsible for my avoidance of hospitals. I'm not going somewhere that might end my life. I find this funny because I was e-mailed explaining that I am in a coma.

Now we go on to Savant Syndrome, Acquired type. "Savant syndrome is a rare but spectacular condition in which persons with developmental disabilities, including but not limited to autism, or other central nervous system (CNS) disorders or disease have some spectacular “islands of genius” that stand in jarring juxtaposition to overall limitations." https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/resources/articles/savant-syndrome-2013-myths-and-realities/  Sounds like me. I wrote this paper, yet I am so disabled I should be in a coma. If you were under the impression that this disorder was autistic only, it does state, "or other central nervous system (CNS) disorders." A brain injury is this. The acquired type of savant syndrome can occur after a brain injury.

That paper goes on, "Typically the skills occur in five general areas—music, art, calendar calculating, mathematics or mechanical/visual-spatial skills." Music could have been if I was able to hold an instrument. My grandmother was a piano teacher. As a baby she would hold me on her lap and sit at the piano. Formal lessons most likely started when I was 4, but I was already advanced. I played in my first piano recital when I was 5. I played daily until I was 9 years old. I moved and saw my grandmother once a week. Children can lose interest and I did. When I was 16. I started piano again, but not as strict, as I was a teenager with ideas. When 16, right before 17, I left high school and started college I
taught myself guitar when 18. I also graduated from college  https://myspace.com/angelar70/post/activity_profile_366221284_dc708415bae048fd93b651b12b20bdf9/comments
 
Writing can be a form of art-literary art. I use it as a form of communication. That's one reason there is so much. I will be creative. That's where the art comes in. I don't think about that, though.

I tell how I use math, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/11/impeding-science.html . I will do a complete data-based functional analysis.
 
I found this in that paper surprising. That article specifically mentions something I do, "Other skills occur less frequently including...outstanding knowledge in specific fields such as neurophysiology." https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/resources/articles/savant-syndrome-2013-myths-and-realities/  How did I end up as group administrator of an on-line group called Neurophysics+? If you have Facebook, the group is located at https://www.facebook.com/groups/IFLNeuro/
 
It is possible that I just have superpowers. The video below is a man diagnosed with Savant Syndrome, Acquired. His very first sentence, "I don't know how to say Godly moment, but it was one of those moments where you are starting to question what's going on." His injury was from a swimming pool accident. Again, a brain injury not only gives hope but wins the lottery.
 
 
 
 
Instead of superpowers, I say there must be a reason.


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Impeding Science


.
 
My unconsciousness is impeding science. The talk above is not 100% correct, but it's enough to make me conscious again.
Just because I should be unconscious on paper does not mean I actually am unconscious in real life.
 
Since I am unconscious, science can't really study me. So...I'll put stuff here.
 
______________________________
 
There's something I do that's closely related to math. I will do a  data-based functional analysis. It's close to http://specialed.about.com/od/specialedacronyms/g/aba.htm but doesn't always involve a behavior.
 
Strange mathematical abilities can appear after a brain injury. It happened to Jason Padgett.
 
 
______________________________
 

This blog will give me a list of views. Other websites will do that as well. I'll take the data and do a complete functional analysis. Some people are surprised by what I find, but I'm just given numbers.

That's just computer data. I will do the same with behavioral data. I will do an ABA, or Applied Behavioral Analysis.

______________________________
 
Long ago I made a statement that math is the "glue" that holds the universe together. I said it without thinking, and I don't think about it now. There's only one way to do math and it's done the same way no matter what language you speak. The comment was important enough for someone to report on it, " She recently reported to us that math is the glue of the Universe, and is the spiritual equivalent to the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit, in our lives. That is a profound statement of the scientific (math) spiritual (Holy Spirit) connection that we all need to understand better. " http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/11/09/angela-ronson-part-3-how-our-brain-is-connected-to-the-universe/ I think it's something we already know and I'm just pointing it out. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

You Talking to Me?




Imagine...a patient goes into the ER with her own equipment and her doctor's cell phone number. (The doctor was on vacation, and it was a Sunday also.) I had everything. I just needed skilled labor. It's okay that they didn't know what to do. I did.
 
It was worse when I couldn't talk. The Stooges was the norm. People knew what to do, but they didn't know they were supposed to do it. (Like when I coded but then opened my eyes. "Do you still want to be intubated?" I said "no." First of all, you don't intubate a conscious, talking person. Second, I coded? That was never addressed. Why did I open my eyes? Did these people also need to be told what to do? They were a specialized team.
 
Now I see what was needed...direction. Having the proper tools also helped.

_________________________________________________

 
"Talking to me" was a shock. My speech hasn't been that great. It was once non-existent. I listened to my daughter describe how I used to point out letters on a board (Speech Therapy, that's what this is...pointing out and pressing letters on an electronic communication board.) Before pointing, I'd blink.

I didn't have the behaviors. 
She says she was wired wrong.
I wasn't even wired.


_________________________________________________

I speak now, although there are times I am difficult to understand. Loved ones will take the time. Sometimes they will have me repeat it correctly. I was surprised when the GI Specialist called and wanted to speak to me.

I don't talk to people I don't know on the phone. There's a joke with my family that I speak Spanish. A person called once from my daughter's union to give the topic of the up-coming meeting. As soon as I opened my mouth, "Oh, let me go get someone who speaks Spanish." So now I speak. It's just a different language.

If you understand me, remember there were many takes, this was a good day,
and you took the time to listen to me talk slowly.