I wore a watch since my 8th birthday until a few years after my brain injury when my skin and tolerance to skin irritation made me take it off. I figured I’d use TTC clocks (OK, hard to see after they upgraded to those screens), city clocks (where are they‽), or my Palm, later my…
Category: Treatment
Treatment of brain injury that aims to heal neurons and restore functionality, cognitive skills, emotions, heart and temperature regulation, etc.
Why Should Health Care Professionals Use Neurostimulation?
Why are neurostimulation techniques not adopted widely, given how effective they are? I believe it comes down to trust, anxiety, and being overburdened. I want to talk today about why it’s important for health care professionals of all kinds to learn about and use audiovisual entrainment (AVE) and cranioelectrical stimulation (CES) in their practices. I…
Is Mental Work the Same as Exercise?
Increasing mental work while not decreasing physical exercise commensurately was a really bad idea after brain injury. This lesson no one taught me. NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month—is a month of writing every single day in November to create a 50,000-word novel. This writing community and event includes anyone, no matter your ability; it releases your…
What Makes Reading Enjoyable?
I believed in reading strategies because I believed in my therapist—until I finally had to admit they were an illusion. I sat opposite my therapist, focusing effortfully on her lesson. She was teaching me how to read post-concussion using strategies: highlighters to highlight words I needed to remember; pens to write notes in the margins…
Cognitive Empathy For Reading Loss After Brain Injury
Cognitive empathy lets you imagine a client’s experience, puts yourself in their shoes, and act accordingly. How you can use it to help restore reading post concussion. Dr. Brian Goldman, a Toronto ER doctor and host of White Coat Black Art on CBC Radio, was on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today at noon, Friday, May 4,…
Reading Loss: The Genesis of Grief, The Seed of PTSD
You don’t know the grief of brain injury until you hear a gentle, compassionate voice drop the devastating news that you can’t read while you’re holding your usual paperback. You never know how brain injury will play out over time. What you think at first is mild becomes worse and worse. Biochemical changes wreak hidden…
Pain Focus in Medicine
Because medical professionals focus on pain rather than healing its cause, patients learn to talk about pain in order to get help.
Dual Colours for Audiovisal Entrainment: First Time
I’ve not tried using two colours before for audiovisual entrainment. Thought about it, read Dave’s notes on it, but hesitated. Chicken! Yes, I claim pock pock pock status. Until today. Did my usual SMR/Beta this morning, but instead of one colour, I used two: red and magenta. Because it’s been a hell of a week.…
Four Month Post-New Concussion Followup
Election 44 day, and it feels like a good time to write on concussion. Recovery at first stretched slow slow slow then in August snapped into sudden improvements. That’s brain injury recovery with treatment for you. Writing The blast injury ripped apart my ability to respond to writing reminders, remember to work on posts, and…