Showing posts with label Developmental Specialist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Developmental Specialist. Show all posts

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Developmental Profile II



I need to update my Developmental Profile, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/03/developmental-profile.html  I wrote this when I wasn't using my right side at all.  http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-parralyzed-hand.html shows that I do use it now. I was an Infant Development Specialist for a long time. A Developmental Profile was generated at the beginning and throughout services, to document skill levels, needs, and progress. The children served had or were at-risk of having neurological problems. Nothing like that exists for adults as adults usually don't go through childhood development. I also have the knowledge to write about this now and I do so with one finger. These are indicators of a rare disorder I have not been diagnosed with. What appears to be developmental growth (different from childhood developmental growth) would be activation of adult stem cells. This is also not diagnosed in me.

"A neurosurgical diagnosis of posterior fosa intracerebellar hemorrhage and obstructive hydrocephalus and intraventricular hemorrhage possibly due to arteriovenous malformation was made" is my original diagnosis. At the hospital I was at prior to coming home, I was trained to say I was "semi-vegetative." I also was the only "vegetable" that talked. (My speech was poor and not widely understood, so "she must be messed up" mentally. Not said exactly like this, but still said.)

I begin with motor. On my left hand, the hand I type with, I am adding more dexterity to my middle finger. I use an inferior pincer grasp very well with this hand. I have used the neat pincer grasp (pinching) with this hand a few times, but it was conscious. It's not really emerging yet. I'm using an inferior pincer grasp (thumb against the side of my forefinger) on my right hand. It is somewhere between emerging and fully incorporated. I believe the hand was more developed than the arm. Physical therapy should note this. 'Thumb against the forefinger' is the same as using the thumb to hit fire on a video game controller. An inferior pincer grasp isn't good at picking up crumbs.


As far as gross motor I still am in a wheel chair. I do stand longer, but I discovered why I do not walk by looking at an old picture.

 
It is hard to walk with just one leg. See how one foot turns in? I'm barely putting any weight on it. I'm pushing to a stand with mostly my left leg. That means I need to work on my right. I can only bear weight on my left leg.

Speech has greatly improved. There is a short video, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/02/hows-my-speech.html I will actually answer the phone now. My "No thank you" is understood. 

Self-help is faster, but there isn't any documentation to show. "Gosh, you're done already" isn't something I've tracked.

Social continues to not be an issue. For not being conscious, I sure have a lot of friends.

Cognition continues to skyrocket. I'm asked to remember trivial things for family members. I've become a memory storage file. Facts and concepts, I know quite a few. Rather than spit them out, I apply them. Much of my cognitive skill is seen in my writing.

Although I possess these cognitive skills, I am "decerebrate/decorticate" acording to my initial hospital transfer record. Some in my family reported they were told I was brain dead.

Oh yes, I also have a keen "faculty for observation and deduction."



I will think like this.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Grow A Brain

I may be getting ahead and already want to duplicate, when it's not understood all that's happened with me. First, watch the above if you don't know what Early Intervention (EI) is. Then read http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/09/they-are-neuroplasticians.html I was the equivalent of a Developmental Specialist. I was actually a program manager of an Early Intervention program, and that took a little more working knowledge. Jumping ahead without knowing why is intrinsic to Early Intervention. Early Intervention produced positive results, so that was the reason why it was done. So, like that, I can be the reason why until what happened in me is solved.
 
An SSRI, and then a few years of a Developmental Specialist can be done after a brain injury. The med seems to start the cells. The Developmetal Specialist nurtures the cells and helps develop them. What way better to grow a brain than to have a person who does this already? (These young children have young brains. The Developmental Specialist just nurtures and guides the cells.) They also deal with a-typical development and know about a lot of the problems encountered.
 
As I rehab my right hand (yes, "rehab" after 9 yrs) this makes more sense. First of all, with a brain injury there shouldn't have been any movement. There has though, I talk about re-gaining movement in http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/08/neurogenic-therapy.html. I've nurtured those original cells into the next step. Going on to the next step so it is. I've nurtured this little bit of movement, and now it's on to bigger, functional movements. That's why I work on a peg board, https://plus.google.com/u/0/114061315171466252323/posts/QG1s4pL76hY. Wait a minute! First that hand didn't move, then some movement, now pegs? This would be progress. It's not progress you would see daily in the hospital, but yearly on an annual visit.

This slow progress takes you to the brain. What infant has an adult brain and does everything an adult does? It takes time for a brain to grow. This type of therapy http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/09/they-are-neuroplasticians.html helps grow those cells into something functional, a brain. It's the same then if replacement cells are started in the brain. There isn't an "instant grow" for them, and nothing exists yet that puts full-grown cells there. Brain transplants don't exist.