I’m angry. I’m angry about my diabetes diagnosis. But not because I have it, but because it may’ve been preventable if I’d received adequate support during the years I was being diagnosed and actively treated for closed head injury. I have the feast and famine gene. That means one is prone to developing diabetes Type…
Category: Brain Power
Musings on what makes for a powerful brain. This category also includes the sub-category Brain Health, which covers all things related to brain injury.
Assessment at the ADD Centre: The First Step to Treating Brain Injury
Last time, I wrote about how I found the ADD Centre and what it did for me in treating my brain injury. But I didn’t get into the nitty gritty details of how the assessment and treatment goes. So here’s a rundown of the first step: assessment. Dr. Lynda Thompson, the Director of the ADD…
The Awesome ADD Centre; Hope for Brain Injury
One day I walked into my psychologist’s office, sat in the chair across from him at his desk, looked up and into his eyes, and before he could mask them, I knew. I knew. I knew. I knew. He could no longer help me. The medical model had long since discharged me after helping me…
The Medical Model Fails the Traumatically Brain Injured Big Time
Recovery time depends on how severe the injury was. If someone was unconscious for less than thirty minutes, they will usually recover within three months. If someone was unconscious for more than 24 hours, their recovery may take up to a year…. What Does It Mean to Be Recovered from a Brain Injury—What Is the…
Catecholamine Tests: A Moving Target
I have to get my catecholamines measured. A simple blood test, you’d think, eh? Uh no. Problem number one is finding a lab that tests them. I had these tests done almost 20 years ago. Back then, the doctor’s office explained what tests were required and how to prepare for them. They handed me a…
Rhythm: The Foundation of Health?
Rhythm. Rhythm in music. Rhythm in words. Rhythm in patterns, on the floor, in wood. Rhythm appears in the sinuous movements of dance; sounds out from fingers dancing on piano keys; heard in the staccato beats of hand clapping hand. Hidden, our hearts beat out rhythms, and our breath, lulled into meditative depths, inhales and…
The Toronto Catholic Board Ponders Axing The Arrowsmith Program
One of the things I found incomprehensible was why the medical model of brain injury rehab insisted on compensating strategies to cope with cognitive deficits over trying to treat the brain itself. First off, compensating strategies are piss poor ways to overcome the problems of deficits in the higher cognitive skills like reading; and second…