Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Problem of Neurogenesis


You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Not everybody agrees with this statement.

I once used a woman as a Spanish speaking interpreter. She was retired and had grandchildren but kept the interpreting as a side job. She inspired the mother of a child I saw to go back to school. The young mom even started to learn English! That interpreter told a story of how she learned Japanese after the age of 60. She believed in continued learning.

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," didn't apply to this woman.

I once worked with kids who were targeted as potential dropouts. The thought was "Hurry up and teach them before the time is lost." I ended up finding out about the "re-entry student." Now we have lots of re-entry programs. Brains were learning at older ages. There was no 'Time's Up.'

These kids wouldn't be old dogs who couldn't learn new tricks.
 
"Human hippocampal neurogenesis drops sharply in children to undetectable levels in adults." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29513649/

We can see the results, but not the anatomical changes. It appears that "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." We know it's happening, but we can't detect it.

I relayed the story of Pedro Bach-y-Rita's remarkable recovery from a stroke, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2013/10/intensive-brain-remaking.html. He gained back abilities, after having a stroke. An autopsy was done after he died. The following excerpt is from his son, Paul Bach-y-Rita's Wikipedia page:

In 1959, Bach-y-Rita's father, Pedro, suffered a cerebral infarction (stroke) which caused paralysis to one side of his body and damaged his ability to speak. George Bach-y-Rita—a psychiatrist and Paul's brother—succeeded in treating Pedro so that he was able to lead a normal life, despite the opinion of several doctors that this was impossible. When Pedro died, an autopsy, performed by Dr. Mary Jane Aguilar revealed that Paul's father Pedro had suffered a major stroke and suffered severe damage to a large portion of his brain stem, which had not repaired itself after the stroke. The fact that he had made such a significant recovery suggested that his brain had reorganized itself, providing evidence for neuroplasticity. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bach-y-Rita
If Pedro Bach-y-Rita was to be going by guidelines, he couldn't do anything. This is seen in his autopsy...but we know differently. What is his proof of neuroplasticity? Is it his behavior? His brainstem is not repaired, so we don't see anything. I'm thinking a different type of scan to detect brain activity when he was alive could be used. That did not exist then, though.

Now you go to me. If you go to reports, I shouldn't be doing anything. My behavior tells you different. You are reading this. Something happened. Did neurogenesis happen? This old dog learned new tricks.

I'd like to see a current scan. Did some areas of my brain come back? Does it look like Pedro and the stroke left massive damage? Can we see what's going on?




How do we know?
 You can't touch this and you can't see this (in scans)...

 But you can read this.
___________________________________

I say neurogenesis because there was nothing to wire to other than the brainstem. This rewiring process is known as neuroplasticity. It is also not recognized, although the concept has gained popularity in the last few years.

I only had a brainstem function, heart beat, despite records saying I was "decerebrate." This would be "no brain", but I did have some, but it was very little. I now breathe. Since this is a brainstem function and my brainstem was available, this could have been neuroplasticity. This did happen in the first year after my injury.

Talking and writing came later. Vocalizing a word warranted "semi" being placed in front of "vegetative." Years later I am not in a hospital and am published in a magazine, Stroke Connection magazine, page 9. This took years. Not only can you not see neurogenesis, but it takes a long time? (I may have a secondary condition speeding this up, but that is to be determined. It may be giving me the ability to write.)

This should all be studied but I am semi-vegetative. I cannot legally give consent.



Monday, March 26, 2018

What Do You Do?


https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-that-you-do-for-a-living/answer/Angela-Ronson




I had a retirement plan. It was like a 401K, but the IRS equivalent for a non-profit. It's known as a 403B. I was 32. I thought I wouldn't need it yet.

With all the daringness of a young person, I left my job and cashed out that 403B. I already had a job lined up. I'd be paying into a different system. I still had my Social Security, but I knew it only gave a bare minimum. I wasn't completely working without a safety net.

I had a stroke. It wasn't the regular kind and there wasn't any warning. I was healthy and not over-weight. I didn't smoke and seldom drank alcohol. I had low blood pressure!

What happened is that I was born with a tangle of blood vessels in my head called an AVM. That stands for arteriovenous malformation. An artery ends up directly going into a vein without capillaries. Blood pressure is higher in arteries. The artery vessels are made to take it. Veins can't. AVMs usually burst, probably due to this blood pressure situation. AVMs rarely occur and are usually detected after they bleed. There are no preventative measures.

I never knew I had this thing. What happened to me can be viewed as a freak accident. They are very rare. It was a stroke, but the circumstances were strange.

Since I write, I should at least be minimally conscious, if not fully conscious. The system wasn't set up to deal with this issue. I say it is a communication disability. The problems experienced are consistent with discrimination of a disability. I did not speak at time of testing. I speak now. Right now I don't swallow. Give me time. I'll eventually do it, but that's not for a living. I most likely will remain not conscious unless I am evaluated in person. My paperwork does not look like me. Right now I don't do anything for a living.




Wednesday, March 21, 2018

AND

The concept is completely my own, but others may want to use it. I am not immortal. I can't wait forever for an answer.
I use quantum physics. This is probably why a lot of physics ppl follow me.
______________________________________________________

This is my basis for using the word "AND"...



There are two opposing views. For my time's sake, I will assume both are correct. One view may be correct. It doesn't matter to me. My existence will continue whether or not there is one answer, the other or both.

Science is questioning everything. Instead, I'm saying all is for not. All the scientific work applies as it is observed. This reality can be a simulation. It doesn't matter. We don't observe the fakeness or unreality.
____________________________

"The brain is a filter AND a calculating sponge."


This is what we know.





The brain is an organ that filters experience has been proposed...


Friday, March 16, 2018

I Suction Myself


Long ago I used this video to show that it is possible to survive without a head.


The chicken died because it needed to be suctioned. The caregivers had been suctioning it with an eyedropper. The eyedropper was lost when the chicken died.

Suctioning is a process where a special instrument is used to clear an airway. The airway is basically vacuumed out.

Now I learned how to suction my mouth with a yankauer. (The AUER is pronounced like SAUER KROUT.) One of these things may have been used on you at the dentist. You may have been told to suck on it.


A yankauer suctioning tool

There is a deeper suctioning that I had when there was a tracheostomy tube in my neck. I wasn't able to do this one on my own.

Since I always did my own suctioning with the yankauer, I always had a clear airway. It was alright that I didn't cough.

I didn't cough. I somewhat do today, but it is still inconsistent. It slowly gets stronger. This will be hard for medical personnel to fathom, because it was said that if you didn't cough, then you were dead.



Nurses liked doing that  deeper suctioning on me. It usually makes a patient cough. Not me. I never coughed, but my airway was clear after.

I have a pretty strong diaphragm. This comes from years of choral singing and proper breathing. Lesser known is that sharply pushing on the diaphragm is performing the Heimlich Maneuver. My diaphragm is so well developed that I not need to push on it with my hands. I can just flex my abs.

With this brain injury came no flexing of anything. Breathing on my own came some months later. I quickly learned how to clear my airway when I got off the ventilator. I forgot all about that well developed diaphragm. Doctors will now say that played a big part. It might very well be the difference between what you see now and death.

Some years ago family described to a social worker that I coughed a lot. I didn't say anything. I was thinking. First of all, my airway clearing sounds like coughing. To me, I was blowing/exhaling hard enough to bring up the junk there. Two, I "coughed" a lot. There's no way my body could wait a few hours between suctionings from a nurse. As soon as I could, I suctioned myself.

I laid in bed and watched TV. With that yankauer in my left hand, I'd bring it to my mouth to suction. It was already on. It was always on in a hospital. I learned on a portable suction machine in a care home. I had to turn that one on. I could not move my right hand, so I did not use it.

Maybe I came out of a coma just so I could suction myself more frequently?




*  I currently am "semi-vegetative."
Vegetative is a coma, but the eyes can be open.
I do not swallow, which qualifies me as vegetative.
I am able to speak short sentences. (Due to that diaphragm?)
I use one finger to type.
I was in various hospitals and nursing homes between 2002-2006.
I currently live on my own with a visiting home care person.

I want to thank all the medical personnel, not just the doctors and nurses, but the RTs, CNAs, therapists, and people sweeping the floor. I thank family. I want to thank all who have written me. I want to thank everyone who reads and keeps me in mind-the collective conscious. I thank everybody.

I still pretty much am in bed. I do get up into a wheelchair for a few hours on most days. I don't have to use a yankauer anymore. I now blow my secretions into a tissue.


Thursday, March 8, 2018

Pride Made the Error


I was made semi-vegetative after surgery at Stanford. Developmentally, I was taking-off. Instead the diagnosis I had said I was dying, Persistent Vegetative State.

It looked like Stanford reversed the downward spiral and saved my life. This wasn't admitted. Instead of changing me to minimally conscious, MCS, I was made "semi-vegetative," a term that doesn't exist in diagnostic manuals. The government program had too much pride to admit Stanford's success.

Smiling: the first gesture in that description I give in http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2013/02/get-rid-of-word-semi-vegetative.html is apparent in the photograph taken at that hospital. (Ignore the dead body behind me. It took this place, the government program, a while to remove dead patients. I think this one was three days.) I exhibited all those qualities listed in the description.
 


The government had too much pride to bend over and admit to a small university that the university had the skill they didn't.

This essay could infuriate the government. I'd like that. They then would have to admit this essay exists. As now, I'm vegetative and can't write. Again, it will be pride.

The head of the government can be made into a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon. The government could easily provide hot air. It would win awards.



 (Is that Scooby Doo's body? 
*snicker, tee-hee)
It was a different president in 2004, but same idea.





Friday, March 2, 2018

Biography... for NeuroscienceNews.com Plus Commentary


The stroke stands out the most, so I'll start there. In Dec 2002, I had an AVM bleed, also called an AVM Stroke. The  AVM did not burst, so it remained. Initial surgery only stopped the bleeding. I was in a full-coma for 5 weeks. Then I opened my eyes. I could not speak or move, at that time. I was made vegetative, an open-eye coma.

In 2004, Stanford University & Hospital removed the AVM and did neural repair. The procedure spanned a month. The AVM is all gone. What you see now appears to be brain growth.

I continue to have that vegetative diagnosis. I speak and obviously type, although I only use one finger. I currently use an electric wheel chair. I have a feeding tube for nutrition.

Now the prior, and this will get people. I was extremely intelligent PRIOR to a bleed. I started playing piano before I started school. Piano stopped in the 3rd grade, but in the 4th grade I took off academically. I left high school when 16. At 18 I had an AA in Business Administration. At 19, I had a BA in Psychology. Time off, then an MA at age 24 in  Special Education.

I had children and worked until 2002 when I had this bleed. The first four years after the bleed were spent in various hospitals and care homes. I think I got lost in the system and I am being "found" again. Neuroscience News found me first... trying to get fair healthcare services. (By the way, I still do not have a neurologist despite "being in a coma" and having multiple brain surgeries.)
______________________________
ANALYSIS


AVM stands for arteriovenous malformation. It's a rare condition that is usually believed to form during development before birth. Many do not know they have it. It is usually found after it bursts and causes death. A tangle of blood vessels form. An artery directly goes into a vein. There are no capillaries. Veins are not meant to take the blood pressure. Mine leaked and was found. A burst most likely would have killed me.
 
This is the best image I could find on Google.

I did go into a full coma after that first surgery to stop the bleeding. After 5 weeks of deep coma, I opened my eyes. I was made vegetative, which is still a coma, but the eyes are open. I was made the more disabled vegetative, PVS (Persistent Vegetative State). If the lesser MCS had been chosen, this progression would have been easier to note. MCS stands for Minimal Conscious State.

I have slowly progressed to consciousness, but I still keep the vegetative diagnosis. In 2004, my diagnosis was changed to "semi-vegetative" by one hospital as I was vocalizing, but "vegetative" was kept. I've since gone home. I speak much better and I manage the care of my feeding tube by verbally giving care givers directions.

Remember I explained I was a child prodigy? I was diagnosed in the 4th Grade as advanced. This may be all a school needs to know. That advancement would provide my body with the plasticity and other tools to survive a bleed. This take would assume I had undiagnosed Savant Syndrome, Congenital. Then there is a second disorder, Savant Syndrome, Acquired, that comes from a brain injury. If you put the two together, you have double Savant Syndromes. I don't want to go there, but what is this? Higher analysis isn't categorized, I think.

It can then be concluded that Savant Syndrome is needed to restore consciousness. This disorder is barely studied as it is so rare. More will have to be known about it. 


I could be totally wrong. In that case, I am in a coma and I am just confused.