My Set Up

My set up...

When I opened my eyes almost two months after a stroke, a machine was breathing for me. I did not breathe on my own.

I did not speak, either.

Like the man in that video above, I could only blink my left eye. "On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, [Jean-Dominiqe] Bauby suffered a major stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. Called locked-in syndrome, this is a condition wherein the mental faculties remain intact but most of the body is paralyzed. In Bauby's case, his mouth, arms, and legs were paralyzed, and he lost 27 kilograms (60 lb) in the first 20 weeks after his stroke,". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Dominique_Bauby

I'm alive at home and no one knows how. 1. I got off that machine. 2. I learned my medical care. 3. I became vocal, just a few words. 4. I convinced a doctor to let me die at home. I didn't die, though. I've been slowly getting better. (I had an experimental surgery at an independent hospital addressing my impending death.) _____________________ 

It's not possible that I have any genetic links to this person, Jean-Dominique Bauby. He is a few years younger than my father and died a few years before my stroke. I never knew of his case until years after my stroke. Genetic Memory can not be involved in this instance. What can be spooky, though, may be even spookier in my case. I am familiar with Carl Jung's principals. One I wanted to know more about is connected to psychic activity, the Collective Unconscious. This is the spooky term. Genetic memories may not have been passed down to me. Rather, I picked up on other people's memories and knowledge. I knew what to do because they knew what to do.
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It will be strange. I started with an NDE, Near Death Experience. NDEs have been associated with miracle healings, but these have been much quicker. I've been getting better for years. Near Death Experiences are strange. They are not explainable. People who have had them have been called mentally ill. The NDE cannot be proved. People who say they have had them are skeptically looked at. My NDE is a bit different. Medical records must be used to determine near and actual death. Also due to my type of injury, I have little to no recollection of that particular instance. My current behavior, or outcomes, will have to determine what happened. This makes the NDE referable. I have no idea how far this slow progression will go.

Giving Credit

I only exist because of Stanford University and Hospital (now, not since birth). If it had been left to traditional means, I'd be dead now. Traditional meant leave the AVM that was in my head and treat my symptoms with medications. No matter how you look at it, I'd be dead right now if that blood clot was left in my brain. Doctors at Stanford University and Hospital removed it.

I was shot with that laser a couple of times before AVM removal, and yes, each time was out-patient. I was residing at a completely different location. I was moved to a different hospital while I had a final brain surgery at Stanford.

Whatever happened with my brain started before I went to Stanford. At that time of Stanford's surgery, I appeared MCS. When I first had the bleed, I was left in an eyes-closed coma. I appeared PVS. I got some movement back in the months following me opening my eyes. When I went to Stanford, I was vocalizing. I wasn't speaking like I do now. I did not type at all. I wasn't expected to survive as the government saw it, so "Vegetative" was kept.

That surgery I had allowed my skills to continue to develop. What you see happening in me has never been seen to happen before. Frankly, anyone else who had a bleeding AVM was dead.

If my writing sounds boastful, I'd say that sounds typical from a teenager. My bleed was 16 years ago. Look into that.

The government should have acknowledged that Stanford even performed a surgery. Right now, it's being left to a miracle and faith got rid of a physical deformity. There was a physical surgery. Any faith is outside that. (To go many years without follow-up has required me to have faith in the doctor's skill, not a religion.)

Standford is now in the "I told you so" position. They have the upper hand in this.

Sparking The Imagination

I got a sick feeling when I wrote "I Re-Set My Clock," http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-re-set-my-clock.html

I was thinking that the way I believe neurogenesis was started may have possibly set up a never-ending cycle. I'm re-reading the primer on stem cells put out by NIH. It's been updated. It now appears that I may have iPSC cells. "Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell–like state by being forced to express genes and factors important for maintaining the defining properties of embryonic stem cells. Although these cells meet the defining criteria for pluripotent stem cells, it is not known if iPSCs and embryonic stem cells differ in clinically significant ways." https://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/6.htm  These are very much stem cell-like.

Originally, I thought I may have spinal stem cells, caused by the bleed. I was told that the blood from the bleed "ran down your neck." What major bone is in the neck? The spinal cord is there. I figured I gave myself a spinal tap with the bleed.

What kind of cells are responsible for my neural repair? Are new stem cells periodically generated? If the answer to this one is "yes" then there is the possibility of being immortal. There would be neural repair forever.

If I have iPSC stem cells, will they return to the state they were before? I liked this one theory, iPSCs were originally embryonic stem cells that went dormant.

Some genes don't turn on until after you die http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/some-genes-dont-turn-on-until-after-you-die/

This means my recovery is all due to the NDE. Miracle recovery, yes, but how do you turn those genes off? There's still a possibility of immortality. I've never heard of someone living forever before, so this is lacking.

I'll stick with 110 years old, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-estimated-lifespan.html That's just theory! It's not a given fact that I'll live to that age. The theory has more substance than my being immortal. This idea can spark imagination, though. I wouldn't mind sci-fi stories.

I'm gonna live forever. Baby remember my name.

New Estimated Lifespan

*Note- This won't happen with all strokes. Only strokes where brain cells are killed and then there is rejuvenation (neurogenesis). It is this rejuvenation that is controversial in me. They say it's not possible and I am still in a coma. Well, you be the judge. Am I in a coma?

Some of you may buy refurbished goods. I say it's the way to go with some electronics. Refurbished is the same old outside, but new inside. Some electronics are sold at a used price, but with a warranty. 

So here's how the math goes regarding my cells and life expectancy. I was 32 years old at the time of my stroke. It was a severe enough stroke to kill the brain cells affected. All lobes were affected but brainstem and spinal cord. While the unaffected area keeps me alive, Adult Stem cells I say my body released, go to work on repairing/replacing the damaged part. 

These new cells have an expected life span of 78.8 years. I use the CDC rate. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm Other sites have it higher. Now if you take 78.8 years and add the 32 I already lived, you get a lifespan of 110.8 years.

That might be why I don't have gray hair or wrinkles yet. I will get them. They were just delayed.

I just turned 47. I do not have gray hair or wrinkles. I had a severe stroke at age 32. My family was told I wouldn't live. That is not true. 

All stray gray hairs have fallen out. As a matter of fact, most my hair was falling out and growing at the same time. I remember handfuls of hair in my hair brush, but not appearing to show signs of baldness. (This started a year after coming home from the hospital.) Dark, curly hair has replaced my straight, medium brown tresses.

This changing from straight to curly hair sounds like it could be a DNA change. This hair change has happened in chemotherapy and is commonly called Chemo Curl. I am not on chemotherapy. My medications are not associated with any hair changes.

I have gotten comments that the stroke made me younger. It is possible according to some theory that I may have reset my clock. The math I give above could fit.

Like refurbished goods, I may have new parts on the inside and the same outside. Or, I may only be really young looking. Time will tell.


 

Related Posts

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/08/amazing-order-of-events.html 

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2015/06/1000-problems.html 

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-re-set-my-clock.html 

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2016/11/different-disordeer-same-strangeness.html 

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2016/11/im-not-dinosaur-cell-damage-repaired.html 

 

The Neurological Epidemic

Medicine is now that good. So good in fact that we need to start thinking about other things. Brain injury is part of this Neurological Epidemic. Not only will people survive long enough to get Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease, but people deemed "semi-vegetative" will live long enough to be able to effectively communicate. My "brain injury" was both, an AVM stroke and TBI. I was deemed "semi-vegetative" yet I now wrote this. I'd like to think medicine has progressed so far, that  a person like myself will take these steps. I would be part of this neurological epidemic. Not every coma wll wake up, just like not every senior will get Alzheimer's, but there will be some. Is that enough?

Did I communicate effectively?