Years To Move

I use my left finger to press a computer key. One letter is produced. I put letters together to make words, and many words make many sentences. Soon enough I have an entire thought down.

Some may be skeptical, but it wasn't always this way. I couldn't type 15 yrs ago. Back then, I primarily used the lap top for watching videos.

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I didn't all of a sudden one day start doing this. Look at the picture. I'm able to sit up, look at the computer screen, attend to a video, and push play and other controls. These are foundation skills of what you see today. This was 15 years ago and hardly overnight.

My right arm isn't fisted anymore like in that picture. 

There are 12 years between that picture and video. For 12 years I had been working on unfisting my hand. I wrote this long ago, https://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2016/07/opening-hands.html

An Occupational Therapist suggested to me that I hold on to a piece of foam tubing with my weak arm and move it with my good arm. I could cut a pool noodle from a discount store. The video is when I started doing this.

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I now purposely move my right arm, but it is not accurate.

Angela Ronson · I Move Both Arms

I speak, also.

My stroke was in 2002. It has been years. I couldn't move or speak  back then.

Why I Need To Be Made Conscious

I accept my disability no problem, but it messed up my Medicaid. I had to go back in records. What I found.... 

I am not conscious. "Vegetative" was never changed. "Semi" was added later, but it still used the definition for Persistent Vegetative State. "Vegetative" is not conscious. If the person is awake, it is an open-eye coma.

To top things off, I may be brain dead. The term "brain death" was never used. My medical records list my demeanor at one hospital. These are the same criteria for brain death. My records go on since I didn't die. Is it only implied that I was initially brain dead? The original criteria is never refuted.

I receive Medicaid services for a vegetative person, also called a Vegetable. In California these services are called Medi-Cal. The services I receive are very basic medical services. I get less than others with Medi-Cal. Therapy is not included. Messing up my Medicaid back then when I had a brain bleed meant messing me up now to every day that will come until that Medicaid is fixed. I've gotten no rehab. Any future therapy I will need is already denied.

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A question was asked about trading your eyesight for an IQ increase, IQ Increase Question. "So maybe the first thing I will think of, will be to actually use my brain to restore my eyesight." I've done eyesight well enough to see my room. Lets Make a Deal recounts my eyesight recovery. The essay discusses eyesight rewiring.


I have other issues that I have applied my knowledge to. About two years ago, the GI Specialist for my g-tube commented that he just wanted to remove my feeding tube. It was getting infections at an extreme rate. I talk now. This would lead a person to believe I didn't need it. 

The problem is, though, I talk without swallowing. I never got Speech Therapy, or this would have been worked with along the way. Now you see me sucking on lollipops. I'll learn to swallow like the children with oral aversion I had long ago worked with as an Infant Development Specialist.

I do not get Speech Therapy. I am never to get Speech to teach me how to swallow. Just when I thought I had my speech up to a passing level, I find I have one more thing to do.


Walking is another big issue. People can see the wheelchair. I have posted pictures of me standing. Like Speech, I do not get Physical Therapy (PT). I taught myself to push to a stand. I figured if I could only get my body to be like the toddlers I used to work with then  PT would step in. Therapists want to now. They see something they can work with. Insurance, or lack of, prevents them.

 I stood long enough for the photo.

First off, I am not designated "conscious" on government paperwork. Unconscious people don't get therapy. Second, Medicare does not provide on-going therapy. I think it something short like 30-days a doctor can put a referral in for. The therapist can then request an extension. I've done this. It's too short of time to learn walking. This is one more issue for me to work on alone.



Fine motor skills are good enough for a pass. You can read this, can't you? I'm using only one finger, but that is all that is needed. An Occupational Therapist (OT) will tell you I need more, but they are used to funding being cut.



Obviously my cognition is off the charts or I wouldn't be writing this.

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Services for this population are piss-poor in this country. There is an underlying discrimination of disability. This probably affects that.

I am not conscious. Again, this is probably due to discrimination. I have a brain injury that makes me a "retard." I may be a smart "retard" but I am an unconscious one. That makes you better than me.

Since I cannot get consciousness any other way, I ask for a Presidential Pardon, https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-declare-angela-conscious. Being made conscious will improve the quality of services I receive.