the rOad less Traveled

     For my media project, I was assigned a case study for a 68 year old named Dennis. Dennis recently had a stroke and was brought into the emergency room due to an unbearable headache, slurred speech, and loss of control on his left side. After 10 days, Dennis was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital. Dennis enjoys gardening and woodworking and his goal is to return to those hobbies. After an evaluation, Dennis has deficits in visual perception, particularly with figure-ground and spatial relations. He also demonstrates left neglect, completely neglecting objects on his left side while getting ready. He has great difficult dressing (unable to figure out front from back or sleeve hole from neck hole) and needs maximum assistance to do so. Dennis is able to transfer with minimum assistance and ambulates with a hemi walker. He interacts well with the staff, teasing them and involving humor in his interactions, but does not understand why he has to be in a rehabilitatio...

  "The Big Idea My Brother Inspired" By Jamie Heywood       In this Ted Talk, Jamie Heywood talks about when his brother, Steven, was diagnosed with  Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 29. Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is a progressive nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This disease starts killing motor neurons in the spinal cord which causes loss of muscle control. Early symptoms include muscle twitching, slurred speech or weakness of a limb and eventually people with ALS lose control of the muscle needed to move, speak, eat, and breathe. No one knows the exact cause of ALS and there is currently no cure, with the average lifespan being three years.        Although ALS is a horrible disease, Jamie and Steven saw  it as a gift because they began to learn of a new way to look at life. They had an amazing journey as a family and decided to do something with the d...

A test for Parkinson's with a phone call      In this Ted Talk, Max Little discusses Parkinson's disease and the importance of objective tools to detect it sooner so there is a better chance to find a cure. Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects the ability to control movement. This disease usually starts out slowly and worsens over time, eventually causing trouble talking, sleeping, walking, and with balance it coordination. It also causes someone to experience behavioral changes and/or have mental and memory problems. Some of the most common symptoms of Parkinson's are tremors, stiffness, and slowing of movement (bradykinesia). Many of these symptoms are due to a loss of neurons that produce dopamine, causing abnormal brain activity.  There are 6.3 million people worldwide who have this incurable disease. Little says that there are no biomarkers for this disease and therefore there is no simple blood test you can do. Instead, you ...

                                             Life after paralyzation: Janne Kouri at TEDxVeniceBeach      During this TedTalk, Janne talks about a tragic accident that instantly paralyzed him. While playing volleyball at the beach with his friends, Janne ran into a wave and hit his head on a sandbar. After a gentleman rushed him to safety, Janne was able to get to the hospital. From that moment on, his life changed and he questioned everything. The doctors told him there was no hope for his recovery and he would never walk again, but Janne did not give up hope. He asked himself if wanted to be happy: and the answer was yes. He spent every day doing what made him happy and kept fighting. After a lot of research, he found Frasier Rehab in Louisville Kentucky, a progressive rehab facility. Janne and his girlfriend moved to Kentucky where he s...

   "How my dad's dementia changed my idea of death (and life)"  By: Beth Malone      In this Ted Talk, Beth talked about an encounter she had with her dad. Beth started this ted talk saying, "I've been doing some thinking. I'm going to kill my dad. I called my sister." Now this is not a phrase that many people would openly say to an audience of strangers but she was going through something that people would never dream of: her father was struggling with frontotemporal lobe dementia (FTD). Beth's thought process was that her dad was being tortured and his body was the vessel of that torture. She wanted to get him out of that body so that he could be free. FTD is a group of disorders that occurs from a progressive loss of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. This causes the lobes to shrink and can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement. Beth's dad experienced a major personality change and this caused him to get...

     For my neuro note, I read an article by Tyson Ward called, "I Got Hit By a Boat," where he talked about his journey to recovery after being in a major boating accident his junior year of college. It was very interesting to learn about the many miracles that Tyson and his family experienced in the year following his accident. He went from being hooked up to tubes to keep him alive, to comas, ulcers, memory loss, seizures, extensive therapy and eventually getting back to the life he knew before the accident. I really enjoyed the Tyson explained certain terms to make it more retable to those who may not understand what was going on his brain during his recovery process. For example, he explained his weight loss during his coma by saying that his brain chose to go into a coma when it was not in good enough shape to keep him in an aware state and repair all of his injuries. It (the brain) knows that the body is in no sort of shape to do anything positive in an awake state...

     When I think of advertisements that stick with me, there is a specific one that comes to mind: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). I used to see this commercial everyday when I watched TV and it would always make want to hold on extra tight to my dogs. I always remember the iconic song by Sarah McLachlan, "In the Arms of an Angel" and I immediately knew what was playing on my screen. Next thing I know, I'm watching haunting images of puppies and kittens caged in horrendous conditions and my heart just melts for them. It was always so heartbreaking to imagine how terrified these defenseless animals must be and I just couldn't help but wonder what kind of a person would do this to an animal.      Recently I have been studying neurobiology and learning about what aspects of out human nervous system are involved in specific responses to things. While watching this commercial, I know I always felt so much emotion, whether it w...