You read the bad news...Here's the Good News!
In 1971 when I was diagnosed with 15% brain damage in the Memory and Short-Term Learning areas, medical science "knew" that this brain damage was permanent. New research in neuroplasticity and other areas related to brain damage, memory loss and recovery is showing that "permanent" is only what is known at that time...temporary level of awareness of the yet-undiscovered ability of homo sapiens.
Dr. Daniel Amen has spent decades exploring, analyzing, investigating and now promoting methods and techniques that were unheard of in 1971. He changes lives with tests and exercises. Dr. John Ratey with Richard Manning in Go Wild note the research that physical exertion - not your Sunday stroll - grows neurons. Or: do strenuous physical exertion, and your mental capacity increases. So I am going to ask my wife to coach me to do Planks...and more.
There's more: Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha, the world-renowned healer has healed thousands of people around the world from cancer, blindness, diabetes and more. I had three of his "Soul Mind Body Science Healing and Transmission System" transmissions. Since then, I can recall my banking account numbers; the online passwords for my bank and also my credit union accounts; the Facebook password; and several other codes and numbers I use frequently, and infrequently. It's miraculous.
What's next? Well, for starters: In November there will be a book coming out, Soul Mind Body Science. It's co-written by Dr. and Master Sha and a physicist and details how Einstein and physicists since have not seen the missing ingredient to a theory that leaps past E=MC(2).
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Friday, August 29, 2014
On March 25th, 1971 I was offered a test drive in the new Porsche 914 - but the salesperson said that business policy was that the employee had to drive the car away from the dealership. I never got to drive the car; in fact it was years before I would get into a Porche 914. The salesperson drove up toward Skyline Boulevard and seemed not to care for the Speed Limit. Then he began a curving right turn at 85 mph (posted at 35 mph) and when he started to shift down a gear, he could not get it into the lower gear. The car drifted across the center line of the 2-lane road - into the path of a Plymouth sedan. We collided.
When I awakened, all was dark. Then I began to hear something, so faint that I could not tell what it was. The sound repeated, becoming louder - someone was saying "Are you OK? Are you OK?" My vision began to return and I moved back onto the seat. I had been lying on the floor in front of the passenger seat.
I was helped out of the car, and I heard someone say "He's bleeding" and someone put something on my head. An ambulance came and took me back into Portland to a hospital and I drifted in and out of consciousness. I remember being in an operating room and someone was doing something with the top of my head. Then a voice said "Better call the resident neurosurgeon." I awoke sometime later and - evidently the neurosurgeon - said "Don't take such small stitches, get him sewed up to stop the bleeding."
I am still not clear how I got home. The hospital released me with a turban bandage and a concussion that later tests said caused "15% permanent brain damage in the memory and short-term memory areas." It still seems strange that I can remember those words, when my memory is so sporadic.
That is probably the worst concussion I have had, but that's just conjecture. With nine concussions, how can we know what is the "worst" of them?
This blog will contain my thoughts and feelings about traumatic brain injury (TBI), as I am able to move into the memories, the details of living with brain damage, the research about TBI, and the Good News.
The Good News, so this first post ends on a positive note: Our brains "over-learn." They store information in different areas of the brain about how to speak, how to write, how to ride a bicycle and much more. Recovering from brain injuries for me is really a process of 1) getting past the "I don't want to look at what happened; I don't want to do exercises that remind me of new limitations." 2) Getting myself to do the mental exercises that connect the existing pieces of information to the others; and relearning some missing information, skills, and building new habits.
Let me know your thoughts about this post, will you? I appreciate it.
When I awakened, all was dark. Then I began to hear something, so faint that I could not tell what it was. The sound repeated, becoming louder - someone was saying "Are you OK? Are you OK?" My vision began to return and I moved back onto the seat. I had been lying on the floor in front of the passenger seat.
I was helped out of the car, and I heard someone say "He's bleeding" and someone put something on my head. An ambulance came and took me back into Portland to a hospital and I drifted in and out of consciousness. I remember being in an operating room and someone was doing something with the top of my head. Then a voice said "Better call the resident neurosurgeon." I awoke sometime later and - evidently the neurosurgeon - said "Don't take such small stitches, get him sewed up to stop the bleeding."
I am still not clear how I got home. The hospital released me with a turban bandage and a concussion that later tests said caused "15% permanent brain damage in the memory and short-term memory areas." It still seems strange that I can remember those words, when my memory is so sporadic.
That is probably the worst concussion I have had, but that's just conjecture. With nine concussions, how can we know what is the "worst" of them?
This blog will contain my thoughts and feelings about traumatic brain injury (TBI), as I am able to move into the memories, the details of living with brain damage, the research about TBI, and the Good News.
The Good News, so this first post ends on a positive note: Our brains "over-learn." They store information in different areas of the brain about how to speak, how to write, how to ride a bicycle and much more. Recovering from brain injuries for me is really a process of 1) getting past the "I don't want to look at what happened; I don't want to do exercises that remind me of new limitations." 2) Getting myself to do the mental exercises that connect the existing pieces of information to the others; and relearning some missing information, skills, and building new habits.
Let me know your thoughts about this post, will you? I appreciate it.
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