I'm Here

I don't know what I am, but it is definitely not vegetative.

A grad student once proposed that what I have is more like an extension of Locked-In Syndrome. This person knew nothing about how I previously believed that I had Locked-In Syndrome compounded by a vision problem. This was then misdiagnosed to be vegetative.

I could not respond to letters on a letter board if I couldn't see the board.

Isn't this the problem of poor academic performance? For years students who performed poorly were found to need glasses?

I was just the extreme. I've had improvement in vision, but progress has been as slow as everything else.
 

Now here's an idea...people who are conscious in a coma aren't in a coma at all. They have a severe form of Locked-In Syndrome where there is absolutely no movement; not even the eyes. This person appears to be in a coma because they can't open the eyes.

I can propose this idea of a severe LIS (Locked-In Syndrome) because I could hear before my eyes were open. "Hearing was definitely first. I could hear before my eyes were even open. Coma scales talk about lighter coma as it ends. This would be that." http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-order-of-coming-back.html Researchers will be interested in this essay. I list the order of the skills I have acquired since opening my eyes.

On top of everything, I propose I have Savant Syndrome. I would remember something as little as hearing in a coma so long ago. You would also get this analysis, all typed with one finger. (By the way, as I type, I notice my left eye is shut. This is probably my body's way of treating low vision in my right eye. Remember the doctor patching the stronger eye in children? The same thing is happening here.)

All kinds of people have suspected I was Locked-In. I never had to tell them the suspicions I once had. "For two years, Angela suffered the “locked in syndrome”!  This is a horrifying condition in which the patient is conscious and yet has lost virtually all motor function." http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/08/16/not-a-vegetable-at-all-but-a-white-crow/

What I now have is more likely related to what I once had. I never thought it was Persistent Vegetative State.  I suspected Locked-In Syndrome. There wouldn't have been a regaining of consciousness at all. I have had progression to higher consciousness, but Locked-In Syndrome is already conscious. I've been conscious the entire time my eyes have been open.

What about people already conscious in a coma? Well, they really wouldn't be in a coma, now would they?

Is there anybody in there?

(A savant has to have some music somewhere.)