People Change

I think scientists around the world have been worried about people being conscious in a body that is not. A few years ago there was this, http://www.bbc.com/news/health-20268044

A man in Canada could appropriately give yes/no responses by thought when in an fMRI.

This article, and others I have seen, do not suggest this is a form of severe Locked-In Syndrome. I see it as such. "Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological disorder in which there is complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles" https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/locked-in-syndrome/ This goes on to read "except for the eyes" and that communication is performed in this manner. I take it one step further. The eye muscles are involved and only brain responses can be given.

This brings back worries of walled-in alive disease, "maladie de l’emmure vivant” in French.

A way to communicate with those "Locked-In" is looked for. A computer/brain interface is being worked on. It is not all-the-way there yet, but I say it is very close. How do I know it is close? I've told people to watch the toys. There are now mind-controlled toys offered to the public.

Mindflex Duel Game https://www.amazon.com/Mattel-T8498-Mindflex-Duel-Game/dp/B004GHNFKK

The technology is first put to use in toys. Bugs can be worked out here. As people become used to the technology, it can be applied to more serious issues.

When we have a commercial communication device accessible to the public for communicating by thought, then we will be there. Until then, we'll access mediums and psychics.

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What probably happened in my case was I was like this man above who's in Canada. I had thoughts in my head that I couldn't get out of my broken body. I also must have had a secondary condition like savant syndrome, where there is great plasticity and memory. (That disorder happens to be one I know about. Others will have to determine if I have something like this.) It is because of the plasticity that I have that I shortly begin to blink my eyes in response to questions. I did not initially blink for doctors. I did later for family. (I always used family report as a professional because of this. I also worked with babies. They were non-verbal. If a skill is emerging, the family or primary caregivers usually see it first. The skill may not be emerging to them, but a given fact. It is emerging, though, because the skill hasn't been generalized to other people, yet.)

People at Santa Clara Valley Medical (where I was) got suspicious. If family had made up the 'eye blinking thing,' then they were acting on it? Many times the family did not know why they were asked to do a certain thing or say/read specific wording to certain people. That all came from me; that's why. The family wouldn't know. I would. It was soon understood by medical staff that I was using family to communicate.

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I lost my private insurance and became full government. At that time, there was a cap on my insurance of how much payment of services a person could receive. I reached that amount. A helicopter ride, brain surgery, and months of hospitalization aren't cheap.

I probably had a secondary condition (I'm going to say it because it won't make sense if I don't, savant syndrome.) I say savant syndrome because of a high amount of plasticity and a high memory. I came out of the coma due to high plasticity. Plasticity is what was working while I was in coma. It would have to be completely biological. No thought processes were involved.

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Years pass. I can do most rehab because I remember previous training and education. Savant syndrome has huge memory. I remember techniques n exercises. I have degrees in Psychology and Special Education. I specifically studied Early Intervention. I ran an Early Intervention program for  children ages 0 - 5, who were neurologically impaired or high risk of neurological impairment. My own neurological event happened a few months after I had left that program. It is odd, but I know everything to be done for what happened to me.

Now I am here. My body is mostly disabled, but my mind.... I can't even describe that. I changed over the last 15 years. It wasn't sudden. There's no boom, it's a miracle. I remember reading some time ago that minor changes should be tracked,  Tracking the recovery of consciousness from coma. We didn't. We are doomed to repeat history, but I may have recorded enough for advancement.

 People do change...some at

different rates.

Groove Me



People continue to debate whether I'm conscious or not. Let them. There is something else that needs to be dealt with right now that doesn't concern my consciousness. (For some background, I suffered a severe brain injury. I shouldn't be able to write this.) I have believed rewiring is slowly occurring for a long time now. Maybe if rewiring, neuroplasticity, was accepted, this wouldn't be such a big debate. (Watch the video for an explanation of rewiring/neuroplasticity
http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-heck-is-rewiring-brain-anyways.html.)
 

I was recently asked on Twitter, "if there was one thing to change to make you happy what would it be?" (J.-François Gariépy https://twitter.com/JFGariepy/status/313815449597009920)
 

My answer:  THERAPY.

Therapy has slowly been cut to almost nothing. Put "Medicare cutting therapy" in your browser and all kinds of stuff comes up. What once was all the time, is now just a little bit to help some of you get by.

When I started this strange journey, I was employed in a county position. I worked for a county mental health. It came with pretty nice insurance. Insurance I ended up using when I became incapacitated. Time went by and medical costs were high. The insurance ran out. I now have Medicaid and Medicare.

These latter programs provide close to nothing for therapy. The lesson would be:  don't lose your employment insurance. In most cases that means don't lose your employment. Sure there is a way to continue that insurance (that's what I did) but it's not free. So you have to be able to afford it.

For therapy, I started with the best. When I switched to Medicaid (I wasn't Medicare eligible yet) it became poor. There was a lot less. Now, therapy is nothing...and I have both! (Only a minimal amount is provided at the beginning of your injury).  

It's good I started with private insurance. My situation was dire-to the point where when I reached a hospital I was air-lifted to a trauma center. I was
 lucky to be alive to receive surgery. Afterwards, followed a coma and more surgeries. (I obtained these records. I never opened my eyes at this place.)

I was transferred to a nice rehab with hospital. I opened my eyes at this place. I still had my insurance from my employment. (This meant letting all bills go to collections and using my Social Security to pay the medical.) This place followed all the rules. (I knew "the rules" from prior experience.) They soon noticed my progress. My progress was noticeable, but not fast enough to return home. I ended up in long-term care with death as the outcome. (Obviously, this didn't happen.)

What was a little different about me is my past. At the time of my brain injury, I was  currently employed as a behavioral therapist, but what they didn't know was what I did before. I ran an early intervention program for babies who would potentially be disabled. I was quite educated and experienced in brain development and disability. I managed to have all that knowledge still...trapped in a useless body.

Much wasn't expected from me. I wasn't even expected to breathe on my own. Well, I breathe. I do a lot of other things as well now. (It's funny to me that current Social Security is based on the records of the first hospital, and therefor I am in a coma.) On to what is needed, though, THERAPY.

http://braininjuryknow.blogspot.com/2010/12/rehab-at-home.html

 

This can be done on your own, at your own leisure, in your own home. I told you above I used to do Early Intervention. A part of this is being able to leave parents instructions of what to do for therapy for their child. That's what the above document is...basic instructions for you to provide therapy...a DIY.

You will need the help of a therapist to get started. A therapist starts the initial exercises. You periodically go in for  the therapist to check on how the exercises are going. Therapists can add to or take away exercises from the program.

This makes it a lot easier on the person who needs to receive rehab therapy. It also frees up therapists to work on what is needed. This is a low (maybe no) cost solution to the back-log of in-patient rehabilitation of brain injury. Instead of being put on a waiting list, a home program is started. (Out-patient therapy!)

Therapy is needed in order to rewire properly. How could they start something and not finish it?

In order for the  brain to rewire an activity, the activity must be done repeatedly. Norman Doidge gives a description of this when he likens it to snow skiing, but uses it to explain a bad habit. "Plasticity is like snow on a hill in winter. If we want to ski down the hill we can take many different paths because the snow is so pliable and plastic. But being human we tend to favour one path and pretty soon we´ve developed a grooved track, which ultimately becomes a rut that is hard to get out of." http://www.thinkbigmagazine.com/mindset/259-brain-changes-itself A habit is a habit; good or bad. Therapy does the same activity over and over the right way. It develops a habit (good). You could say it makes the groove in the snow deeper.

As far as proof of this thing working, I can only offer myself. The exercises are for therapies that stand on their own, OT, PT, and Speech. This thing has just become part of my life. I do it every day. I'm not slowly getting better. I am  slowly making my grooves deeper.