Disability is not income. I don't have income tax. When has a vegetative person paid income tax? I don't see people in comas working. That's what makes this weird. I was in a total coma, opened my eyes, my body still appeared to be in coma, and then I start talking. To top it off, I am knowledgeable. People in comas don't write. (Talking is years later.)
Social Security is a real retirement program. The healthcare part is called Medicare. If you become disabled before retirement age, you can collect it if approved.
I wrote this last year as an answer to a question. Now it's for everyone else. I don't make plans to do anything. I just lay in bed all day. I don't even eat. I have a feeding tube. (That's why the lollipops I have are a big deal now. It's been 17 years with no food.) I will speak now. If I do anything special it is with words. The question clicks back to the original. It has over 100 answers.
Right now, at this very moment, I am classified as in a coma. My diagnosis is semi-vegetative. Vegetative is a coma and the eyes may be open. “Semi” was added after I started talking.
So I don’t do anything but breathe. I’ll type on the computer, but it’s not for a living. According to my diagnosis, I am not conscious. So I don’t know what this is.
I only use one finger to type. That’s not enough to make a living at anything according to the powers that may be in my life.
Initially, I was in a full-on, eyes-closed coma. I wasn't expected to wake. Family members have said they were told that I was brain dead. This meshes with medical records. Records do not say "brain dead," but use the term "decerebrate."
After 5 weeks, I slowly opened my eyes, one eye at a time over days. Around this time I was moved to a different hospital. I did not speak. I started making sounds months later. Speaking like I do today has taken years.
Persistent Vegetative State, or just vegetative, is what I was given. It is still a coma, but the eyes are open.
2. My speech isn't understandable.
I moved to different hospitals and care homes. There were two care homes, one was licensed and one wasn't. Both had the same owner. There was also a sub-acute long-term care hospital. That place actually got indicted.
I communicated wants and needs with nurses and staff at all these places. I pointed, shook or nodded my head, and used a word or strings of words. The strings of words got longer with time. I was understood... until it came to diagnosis change. Then, "Who knows what she is saying." I started writing.
3. I don't swallow barium.
I clearly write. There is no mistaking ideas or intent.
Some other reason had to be found to keep the word "vegetative." Now I am vegetative because I don't swallow a spoonful of barium mixed into applesauce.
I probably don't have a full swallow yet. I close off my airway so I can have lollipops. I know that these things can teach swallowing. I'm In no hurry.
Why is the government trying so hard to keep the word "vegetative?" This has never happened before. No one has gone straight from vegetative to conscious. Of course no forms exist.
Some way my case will have to make it to whoever makes the rules.
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Speech seems to be tied to cognition. I don't have to speak to write these essays. My true cognitive essence is seen.
Throughout the music video there are movie clips where a man thinks but does not speak.
"How do you get on here?" I was asked. "Carefully! " I wrote back."Ha! This has taken me yrs. I do have 1 finger to use now. My head is full of knowledge."
Watch how the boy points at letters. I am doing the same except with a computer keyboard. I don't have any of those behaviors.
I can move my left arm as I want. I worked a long time and have refined my ability to hit and press a key. At first, I took days to write an answer. Now it might be 10 minutes if not too much is needed.
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I said that I didn't have the behaviors in that video. I didn't have any behavior. In the following video, see how the man sits and stares until his father puts music on. I don't require music, but the lack of behavior is the same.
This movie is based on an Oliver Sacks case. The man has a brain tumor.
