Why It Won't Happen Again...For A Very Long Time

Why It Won't Happen Again...For A Very Long Time



Why won't this happen again in the public American medical system anytime soon? Money and current research is ignored. Wait. I did it. Can't someone else like me? Yes, but that person will have to possess my qualities. That wouldn't be anytime soon. (Qualities like how to provide basic rehab.)

There have been some leading (upper-class) people who have had brain injuries and have gone on to do remarkable things. They have one thing in common - they didn't use the public medical system.  Government officials won't use the government. I need say nothing more. Actions speak louder than words. I don't want to put these people down. Their injuries are serious. They just got the best they could afford. So have I. I can only afford the dirt on your shoe, though. So, anyone who does not have money will have to use a public government healthcare system that is undesirable to the government. Therefore, one using it has little chance to do something remarkable.

The second issue, and this is big to brain injury, current research is ignored. Here's a current issue that has been gaining popularity:  rewiring. The theory is not accepted. Rewiring does not exist. I've even done something on rewiring, http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-heck-is-rewiring-brain-anyways.html   It doesn't matter, though. I don't exist. How can so many people believe in something that we are told we should not.

Here's something I did a while ago, http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2013/04/getting-there.html It's based on actual current research. I find myself using it again and again, explaining to survivors of brain injury that there is growth, progression. Is my document one of the first few applications of this research? It basically is saying there is brain growth for years after a brain injury. Whoa! That totally goes against the entire medical system. They say a brain injury is permanent. This is the ultimate in rewiring! It ultimately does not exist. For someone like me I did not recover enough to write this. According to the government, I'm still lying in a bed unable to communicate. Again, the current is ignored.

Making Something New

Making Something New

“These fractionations appear to be something totally new,”  from http://neurosciencenews.com/brain-stroke-disrupts-muscle-synergy/ This is talking about muscle groups. I mentioned something similar to this in http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-neuropathway.html    When I say "I'm "making a new neural pathway", I am." I'm giving the neuroscience behind it.  This "something new" is seen in more than movement. In my case you can hear it, also.
 

This really puts the science behind creating something new and movement, http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/08/neurogenic-therapy.html  Movement where there was none? That's "new."  This was captivating enough to catch attention, and somebody important helped with  http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-art.html

 I do give the neuroscience behind it, and you see it's more than motor neurons. Remember, I didn't talk. I do now. It's not the greatest, but I can be understood. I don't sound as I did before my brain injury. This is definitely something new. Speech is not motor.

Because something "new" is being made, it is important that therapy continue a lot longer than current rehab. Sure there is initial rewiring http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-heck-is-rewiring-brain-anyways.html but something else is going on. This goes back to my original description of the brain as being moldable like clay, yet possessing wondrous properties http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2011/03/wonders-of-silly-putty.html. Some insurances will continue past the initial rehab. Those receiving that are lucky. For the majority, therapy stops when rehab stops.

This "new" thing takes a lot longer than rewiring. It's probably making a new neural pathway where one didn't exist before. Theoretically, the skill will continue to improve as  the therapy continues.



*For those with a brain injury and current therapy has stopped:  http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2010/12/rehab-at-home.html

My Right Eye

"What's this?"

"Nothing." I quickly threw it away.

When I got out of the hospital, I had some boxes to go through of things my mother kept. There were a lot of boxes. I was in many hospitals for 4 years. While going through a box, a caregiver found an old eyepatch. I don't wear one now so she wouldn't know what it was.

I was lucky. My eye was only patched. Some places will sew it up.

It's been a process, but I use that eye again. It's not the greatest, meaning it is still weak, but no one would ever patch it now. I did something similar to Edward Taub's Constaint-Induced Movement Therapy:  use the weak one. He did it with arms, and I did it with eyes. Look it up. People are being amazed.


Other posts on vision:

"I Can See!"  http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-can-see.html

"A New Therapy" http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-therapy.html

Where Is The Responsibility

A long time ago I commented on a talk. It's time to watch that lecture again. (Don't worry. It's not long.)

In it he talks about life span and how it has increased. He then applies it to neurological disorders and talks about how more people are living longer, and will therefore suffer from more neurological disorders. I see it differently. People suffering from neurological disorders will live longer. What will this mean? We only know what some diseases do short-term because the person who has it dies. I kept thinking, "Are we going to see more people wake up from comas?"

I'm the first with PVS, but this has happened before (to a lesser extent. He was talking, but not writing.), http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-07-03-brain-rewired_x.htm Will it happen again? Probably.

So, what brought me to write this? Well like Where Is The Love, we don't know where the responsibility is either.

A while ago I had a surgery and I wondered if that particular hospital would lay claim to my feats of late. They really are not responsible for what I am doing. They are however, responsible for me living longer. I would have done it anyway if I lived long enough. They don't know they did it, but Stanford Hospital did something big:  http://www.ndrn.org/en/media/releases/485-study-finds-medical-procedures-violating-the-civil-rights-of-people-with-disabilities.html The government's, and many hospital's policy is to treat my problem with medication. The person eventually dies. Stanford Hospital removed the problem entirely. It no longer affected my life-span. By lengthening my life, they gave me the time to do what I needed to do.So what I am doing is still of my own doing.

Responsibility lies more with a drug prescribed at another hospital. It is associated with, but not yet tested for, brain growth. All that I'm doing...it's due to brain growth. But really now, who is responsible for my actions? I am.

So Tiny It's Micro

"For seven years, Angela was in a coma, waxing and waning, often in a “semi-vegetative state”." http://spiritualscientific.com/DrMorseBlog/2010/08/16/not-a-vegetable-at-all-but-a-white-crow/ It should have changed, maybe in year 3. I was in a long-term care unit in a hospital at that time. That could have been possible, but I believe this has never happened. Besides, I was government, Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). Change doesn't come easy to the govt. If change does come it's usually years later. My diagnosis should have changed to MCS, or Minimally Conscious State. What am I now-fully conscious?

What's happening now is "Boom! She's awake." That's not correct, or someone would have noticed right away and there would have been immediate news coverage. Instead it has been a very slow change, seen better from year to year rather than day to day I have a photo stream where you can see the slow progress. The last picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelar70/7171181827/in/set-72157625839268830 really shows the difference in my face. I'm smiling in both pictures, but you can't even tell in the first picture. It took a whole year of oral-motor exercises just to see it.

This shows the "micromovements" E. Taub was talking about were there. You just couldn't see them. I'm proposing these movements are in all areas, not just upper extremities as he does. They are movements so small, it looks like the affected side lost them. As a therapist, how do you know they are there? You don't know for sure, so you'll have to assume they are there. They will only work again if:  the brain is still in tact (penetrating brain injuries might have affected this, as well as some other injuries), the spinal cord is in tact (this rules out SCI), and the area you are working  with is still there and not impeded (deformities, contractures, frozen joints, etc.).

Progress will be minimal and slow. It might help to do a yearly photo or recording. Exercises will be the same ones you do already, but don't expect the patient to actually "DO" them. They should "TRY". If it's 10 reps, it's still 10 reps (only 10 attempts). If it's PT, Range of Motion will start as inactive and become more active. You will FEEL the patient activate the muscle. The movement isn't micro anymore. It's just small. Continue with Range of Motion, having the patient do more on his/her own.

I don't have the fancy equipment in the video below. However, I do have myself. I can only see these changes in my behavior, and assume this is the reason. I can't see changes in my brain.

(Incidentally, if you let the video continue after the long pause he talks about "Learned Non-use" http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/07/learned-non-use.html )

So for 7 years it looked like I did nothing. It only looked that way. There was something else going on. We can't see micro.

Learning Crap

I have said a young child does not rewire. How can they if they did not wire in the first place? Now there might be some, but it depends on the child's age. An infant's wiring is much less than an adolescent's wiring.

When I say "wiring", think of your car or house. Same thing, and most people have to deal with those. If your "wiring is fried", then you have to replace it. In essence "rewire." A new house or car has to be wired when made in order to work.

A disability will distort the wiring. As a child grows, this distortion will become the norm. In the following lecture, a good example of cleft palate and wiring is given.

Around 17min in he talks about a child having a cleft palate speaks and so hears "...muffled English...degraded Japanese. It's crap."

A disability will distort what is coming in, and the child experiences and learns crap. So it is like that when a child has a brain injury. Only it's everything. The brain is the central place for learning and thought. A child experiences crap, learns crap, and thinks crap. So the child grows up giving crap.

My Stupid Boss

If you are approved for IHSS, you must hire someone (your individual provider) to perform the authorized services. You are considered your provider's employer and, therefore, it is your responsibility to hire, train, supervise, and fire this individual. http://www.cdss.ca.gov/cdssweb/PG135.htm
 

I receive this program. IHSS stands for In-Home Support Services. I live independently in my own home. "The IHSS Program will help pay for services provided to you so that you can remain safely in your own home." http://www.cdss.ca.gov/agedblinddisabled/PG1296.htm That says something right there. I'm deemed competent enough to live in my own home, without constant nursing supervision.
 

I got out of the hospital in 2006. It has been quite a few years that I have  been living independently. It would be quite a shame that a higher power would decide now I should be placed in a care home (at the tax payer's expense). Leaving me as PVS, permanent vegetative state, does that, though. It is conceivable that a person with PVS is put in a home to never be heard from again.
  

It says something else, though. This has bothered me. It's okay  to be a mentally incompetent employer. This gives meaning to the phrase "My stupid  boss." That could be true and that's fine with the government.