Can't You Tell?

"Is your gauze wet?"

"I don't know.  Let me look."

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This is one of those splinter skills and hard for people to understand. I've gotten better and can tell somewhat, but I still need to visually confirm up, down, left or right, etc. I didn't know where my body was in space. This is proprioception, or one of the main senses that isn't taught.

It was common for me to tell physical therapy that I needed to see my hands. I knew bearing weight on them when they were  in the wrong position could cause damage or pain.

PAIN 

I could feel deep pain. I couldn't really feel it on my skin. This was great for IVs, blood draws, and shots. I now feel this on my left side as it should be. I'm starting to feel this on my right, but it is very dull. I can be a human pincushion!

I felt cold first and not with my hands. I feel it in my stomach. Whether stored in the refrigerator or fresh from a new box, I can tell that my formula is cold. Refrigerated is closer to having a milkshake.

I can tell a bit if something is soft/hard by seeing squishiness. Again, appearance can give clue as to texture. A few years ago, I became fascinated with roughness of a towel. Only recently have I felt "soft."

Wet/Dry is just now coming. People are surprised that I can't always tell if something is wet.

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The sense of touch is peripheral and is coming much later.


I'm trying not to get a sensory processing  disorder. 

I under react. This means socially inappropriate behavior won't be noticed. Sitting quietly is very appropriate. What people may not know, though,  is that I shut down. I seem to respond again once the stimuli are removed, but I got to thinking of my coma. Was this over-stimulation? Had I shut down completely? The shut-down was so severe that biological functions shut down. This will have to be investigated.

To researchers, maybe I already HAD a sensory processing disorder and the high neuroplasticity I have brought me out sooner. I would still be fighting this processing disorder and slowly improving. To the public, this is just speculation.

 

Screwed Up Senses

I hear this 24/7. From the time I wake up until I go to sleep, I hear a non-stop tone.

I've had this since I was little. It's not "ringing in the ears." It's a non-stop tone. That sound is a given. It stopped Dec 2002 - March 2016. It had stopped so long, that I forgot I had it. In Dec 2002 I had a severe brain injury. Almost everything stopped. Some things come back years later. This was unexpected.

Since the brain injury, a new screwed up sensation started. I'd smell something out of the blue. I took it as something was happening in my brain. I wrote a whole paper on how smell can rehab the brain. http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/10/breathe-deep_11.html I later find out about neurogenesis.

Neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons in the brain, is known to happen in two places. One of these places just happens to be the olfactory bulb, or the smell center in our brain. "This new work confirms that neurogenesis in the human olfactory bulb is a marginal phenomenon in adults." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150521144040.htm

Now, here's the strange one... touch the back of my head and my foot kicks. I will scratch an itch on my head and be kicking the whole time. I looked for it in the literature. It is called "referred itch."

Ever scratch an itch on your stomach and feel the scratch on your elbow? Or scratch your leg and feel a prickly sensation on your neck? You’re not alone. Lots of people report feeling a sensation from a scratch in places far from where they’re scratching.   http://mentalfloss.com/article/56366/why-do-i-sometimes-scratch-one-body-part-and-feel-it-another

Mine is severe. Usually only the sensation will be felt, but I all out kick. It has calmed down over the years, but early on it scared the heck out of a lady cutting my hair. Every time she combed the back of my head, my foot would spasm and I'd kick. I told her not to worry, it was a wonderful result of brain surgery.

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Going back to the top, "That sound is a given. I've had it since I was little. It stopped Dec 2002 - March 2016. It had stopped so long, that I forgot I had it. In Dec 2002 I had a severe brain injury." I already had something. The other two examples occurred AFTER a brain injury. You can say I now have a more "delightful" experience.

The Order of Coming Back

Cognitive was first...when my eyes were open. I already had hearing. Then was social. Next was fine motor. Just wiggling. It has taken lots of therapy to get to the movement seen. Speech followed. It was only sounds. Finally gross motor. I'm asked if I walk yet. This is the last thing, and I'm not there yet. I am also doing this myself, and am not a licensed Physical Therapist. Yes, I used to work on this with 2 year olds, but I'm not 2 anymore.

The "five senses" would be in the cognitive area. I'd have to think back since this all came back years ago. It wasn't a full come-back. It was gradual, and required some learning. Some of the beginnings were seen in the first few months, but would take months to develop. Even breathing was not immediate, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-hole.html.

Hearing was definitely first. I could hear before my eyes were even open. Coma scales talk about lighter coma as it ends. This would be that. Vision is last. I was actually blind in my right eye and it was patched. (I'd wiggle that patch off. It gives credit to rewiring. The eye itself could see, but the brain couldn't make sense of the information.) Feeling came after hearing, just before movement on parts that could move. I couldn't feel a needle stick (ie. blood draw) on a paralyzed arm. Although I was NPO (no food by mouth), taste came back with smell. I have reflux and the formula put in me would come up in my mouth. It wasn't pleasant. Smell has been amazing. Since I was low vision, I could tell if a male nurse was working by his heavy cologne. He didn't even have to come in my room. My vision has since greatly improved, but my keen sense of smell remains.

I describe a process for re-learning smells, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2012/10/breathe-deep_11.html . This is not covered in any therapy I know of. Occupational Therapy may have something under Sensory Integration, but it is not widely used.

 

9/4/2018

When I opened my eyes I was made PVS. I presumed that was because I wasn't talking or moving. Movement started some 2-3 months after my injury and vocalization was 8-9 months after injury. Speech production was so late that it was thought that I would never talk.

http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-have-to-swallow-to-be-conscious.html