I went to the Neuroscience Institute for head injury and they didn't do any brain scans.
I am listening to Ted Talks, specifically this one: The most important lesson from 83,000 scans
I once read a book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, by this same man Dr. Daniel Amen, and it was actaully life changing for me. Not only did it help me understand my own brain better and how to work with it I understood my husband, the poster child for ADHD, better and how to function better with him. So when Dr. Amen talks I listen.
In addition to this here are some other things I have learned about how our brains work:
As a human grows and develops their brain learns how to function differently. With adequate resources our brains can become quite effective and efficient processing machines. All brains will develop shortcuts and there has been enough scientific research done that we know that certain areas have certain jobs and/or are more efficient at accomplishing certain tasks.
With TBI and mTBI/concussion these systems are upset. The brain gets shaken and lit up. It does not process effectively and efficiently anymore. It may be able to get back to what it was before, but if areas are damaged enough, it cannot return to those pathways. A damaged brain has to learn new ways of functioning. It has to figure out new routes and shortcuts. It has to utilize different areas to accomplish the tasks it was able to do before using the now degraded area... as I write this I am simultaneously reflecting and it is starting to make some sense why initially I actually seemed to have some heightened abilities immediately after the car accident. It is like my daughter walking home on hear broken foot, adrenaline pumped by the pain of the break and the pain of knowing her cousin caused it (thought she did not mean to). Her bodies will to utilize it's last bit of strength and life before the reality of the break set in and she could not even put weight on it without significant pain. Likely worsened by the act of walking on it when it was broken.
My damaged brain may have acted similarly after the auto accident. I knew it was damaged, I knew it was not nothing, but a deep subconscious fear of being handled the way I had been when I experienced a broken brain like that before woke me and kept me functioning to deceptive levels. The adrenaline and endorphins, the muscle memory and life experiences kept the bleeding portions functioning at max capacity for as long as they could before they faded and died.
I could be wrong but I am fairly certain something like this really did happen in my head. MRI's done over two years after provide evidence of this. Thus, the long processing, ruminating, and solving is something that I cannot shut down. It is necessary. It is how my broken brain is working to find new routes and to try to reestablish the self that it was, or to create a new self that is efficient and comfortable that I can be happy with.
Broken brains require patience and support.
...All this long processing and trying to place exactly what went wrong and why, when it is so very simple:
I went to a Neuroscience Institute for a second head injury and they did not do a brain scan. Even as increased evidence surfaced that there was more going on then previously thought and even when I kept trying to tell them this.
How stupid is that?
One ex-friend (who ultimately was just afraid to defend), insisted I need to question my own motives. I do question my own motives, and I wish I could let the Neuroscience Institute be. But in reality? WHAT THE HELL? There is something very wrong with this picture isn't there? And then they blame, shame, stigmatize, slander, defame, and punish me for it? Yes, there is something very wrong with this picture.
And I wonder is the root of the problem with them just as simple as: Here in lies the problem with institutions practicing defensive medicine after one provider has made a mistake? Or here in lies the problem with doctors not listening to the experts from the other side of their profession? Or is it simply evidence of how lemming like people really are as they all followed suite after the first doctor made the mistake of misdiagnosing?
Maybe all three, but very clear and simple problems to address if only they would. It is by not, by refusing to be responsible citizens and acting with foolish fear and disregard for human life that harm is increased and perpetuated and societies/communities begin to break down.
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