At Least You Are Alive

Oh poor you. You lost so much.

Stop thinking this way and put it into perspective.

It doesn't matter because you are still alive. The woman above suffered a severe stroke.

That is what I mean about perspective. It doesn't matter what you lost. You didn't lose your life. You are lucky. A lot of people do lose their life.

Life has twists and turns. Yours took the biggest turn ever. So, make the biggest twist ever. Get used to your "new you" then go forward. Be a good example for others with similar conditions. Show them what to do.

*Personally, I couldn't talk, move, or see. I now see with both eyes, although my left eye is more consistent. I move some. I used my left hand to type this. I use an electric wheelchair. I speak some and am mostly understood.

Get Help Before It's An Issue

I was presented with the following article and asked questions.

Jogger dubbed "Mad Pooper" might have a brain injury

This is embarrassing to have it hit the media. It's not done with that. I wouldn't be surprised if the public didn't put pressure on the local law enforcement to arrest the woman.

During recovery, typically developing peers will pick up on odd toileting behaviors. I'm sure that having to go to the bathroom in public will be noticed.

Action could have been taken with referral to the local county mental health. The request would be for behavior modification. If this case does go to court, a savvy lawyer or advocate may be able to get court ordered behavior mod. This is unlikely though. A big criticism of our legal system is that our jails are full of people who can be rehabilitated.

The rightful person must make the call. Mental Health offices speak to the person having legal right. People who don't, but who want to help make up the circle of support. There is a role. Nosy people are not needed and can keep reading things like the above tabloid.

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There wasn't video when I first saw this. The police weren't involved yet.

news report

Range Of Motion (ROM) for Spasms

I've addressed Range of Motion (ROM) for people in bed. The video specifically talks about the wheelchair.
 

I have recommended ROM exercises to immobile people. In the video, the woman and her caregiver/husband show how.

ROM exercises are done to keep the joint in working order. If some sort of cure is found in the future, the person with the disability will want to be able to use those joints again. This will not be possible if the joint ends up frozen, deformed, or in some other way to not be working properly.
 

For a growing child, it is very important to do these daily and to wear braces and splints as directed. The reason is that bones and joints grow. A spasmed muscle can pull on a growing bone. Deformities can form. (Make sure to always check braces and splints for proper working order and if it is causing any redness or chafing.)

Children grow. They need to wear 

appropriate braces/splints.

(This doesn't say, but appears to have been a fracture.) 

Now this is a personal experience.... At a long-term care in a hospital, there was an older woman who was Spanish only. She did not speak, but followed simple commands in Spanish from her husband. Maybe she had had a stroke. She used a wheel chair. She had developed a habit of wrapping a foot around a wheel chair leg. It looked odd and her foot was becoming odd-looking. 

One day the Physical Therapist came to observe her. She ended up getting passed over for a walking rehab program. The reason was her foot.

A stroke is just a type of brain injury.

If your records say "stroke" anywhere on them, you are in luck . "Stroke" happens To be one area in brain injury that is funded. My issue has been the other areas. (Only part of my brain is funded? No, all of me would, but my roommate in the hospital would get nothing. She was car accident only.)

Get this...my records don't state I even have a brain injury. They say something like "a hemorrhage from an arteriovenous malformation and a car accident earlier." Most medical people know an arteriovenous malformation is an AVM. It bleeds and is a stroke. A hemorrhage is a bleed. My records state the cerebellum. Umm...that's the brain.

I do have a brain injury and AVM stroke.  My records use words that have some family in a whirl.

If you have stroke written anywhere, you would qualify for stroke programs. I haven't kept up on these because my issue has been everyone else.

I don't care what your brain injury is, so if there is a free magazine called Stroke Connection, I'm going to tell you about it. So what if "Stroke" is in the title? A stroke is just a type of brain injury. http://strokeconnection.strokeassociation.org/Subscribe/

StrokeSmart is also free, http://www.strokesmart.org/. I haven't seen as many helpful articles, but it does have a lot of pertinent ads... that fuel your search for cheap knock-offs.

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A few years ago I was in Stroke Connection magazine, http://www.strokeassociation.org/idc/groups/stroke-public/@wcm/@hcm/@mag/documents/downloadable/ucm_463065.pdf . Just type in "9" for the page.