My brain is well trained. I did something I’ve never done before: when my three minutes of brainwave biofeedback training were up, I quit trying to fly the virtual biplane (ok, it’s technically a triplane); then in the second screen I did it again — at the three-minute mark, I stopped trying to throw the…
Category: Health
Writings on health and nutrition, the health care system, doctors and therapists, heck, anything to do with health.
Brain Injury, Denial, Perspective
I have a habit of exposing reality to people’s faces, aka, pushing their buttons, even when I’m trying not to. “Oh,” I say breezily to one person with a long-standing brain injury, “your speech is like mine used to be.” “What do you mean?” comes the astonished, slightly angry reply. “Oh you know,” I continue…
Change is a Discordant Emotion
Pain layered on like sheets of sharp pressure all over my scalp, neck, shoulders under the influence of pressure changes in the air; a thunderstorm threatens. Yet my muscle tension was back to normal, below 2, during this week’s brain biofeedback session. That might have been from the residual effect of the accidental gamma training…
A Touch of Gamma Brainwave Training
Everyone has trouble with tradespeople’s propensity for setting big time windows, even businesses. The Toronto office at the ADD Centre is undergoing some minor physical restructuring, and a guy was supposed to arrive at the same time I was being trained to do some work near the computer I’m usually hooked up to. So my…
Saying Farewell to my CCAC Therapist
This was the last week with my behavioural therapist from CCAC (Community Care Access Centre). I still find it a bit surreal. It’s like my brain is going, nope, not happening, don’t want to feel this upsetting change. At the same time I applaud her going for a promotion and pursuing more education in that…
Emotions Swirl, Need Processing, Brain Turns Off
Emotions swirl, need processing. They push against a resistant skin, demanding out but not identifying themselves. I poke and poke with therapy and music. They emerge in a storm that bursts and flees for a little while. But I haven’t experienced the full shut off for quite some time. Until I awoke Sunday morning. I…
May’s #ABIchat: Ambition
Heard on Q: first-born girls are the most ambitious and most likely to succeed. Bwahahahaha! Ahem. #braininjury — ShireenJ (@ShireenJ) May 5, 2014 Brain injury takes so much from us or from clients and loved ones. On May 5th, I was listening to the radio show Q on CBC Radio 1 when Jian Ghomeshi, the…
Touch Taboo in Therapy
This week’s reading for my ten minutes of tDCS during brain biofeedback came from my website. I decided I wanted to refresh my memory on the hypothalamus. But instead of reading Wikipedia, why not read what I’d written back in 2010 with the benefit of my trainer reading along with me, and so I could…
C4 Assessment Week and Ah-Ha Moments
Assessment week. Instead of doing a standard 30-second assessment at the start of the biofeedback portion of my session, I did three minutes like during gamma training. However, unlike the gamma training assessment, where I just sat there while the computer recorded my brainwaves and my trainer went off to work on paperwork, she stayed…