Stroke

[Holly666]

My sister had a brain aneurysm on 11/24/04.  She had a 2% chance of coming thru surgery, but came thru & is recovering in a nursing home.  She is 48 yrs. old.  With therapy, her motor skills & speech are coming back, but only her long-term memory seems to be intact--she remembers everything from the past but nothing as far as day-to-day or minute-to-minute.  She also tells stories about things that never happened.  What is her prognosis for recovery in this area--the neurologist says that there is no brain damage.  Is this something that just takes time?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[Rod Williams]

Here is a link to a study of medical marijuana.

http://www.elon.edu/student/jguske/chemistry/anandamide/anandamide_1.html

Thank you.

[Rod Williams]

Holly 666 said: " She also tells stories about things that never happened."

I was reading your original post to my wife, she was the one who had all the
work, she took care of me and came to the hospital every day, I mostly slept.  She said that possibly she is picking ideas up from a television or other device like a radio, she said this because I did that a few times.  I was talking about women parachutists like they were real and in reality there was a show on about that.

She also added that your sister is lucky, she has a excellent chance at a full
recovery.  Good luck to you.

[Rod Williams]

I had a stroke last July and after 7 weeks of showing no improvement my wife was told to find a nursing home.  One day while still in the hospital I woke up and I too had no long term memory problems but did have short term memory difficulties.  

It just keeps getting better and better, we could see improvement by the week, I was told that the brain after a stroke as part of the healing process goes through a stage of rewiring itself.  

I am a tradesman, I work with small intricate parts for repair and replacement, the first months of jobs were very difficult, the simple jobs were hard and I really had to concentrate.  When not working I would work puzzles from the internet or play card games from Yahoo .com and such, I worked with my mind to keep it busy and today I believe that I am in better shape than before the stroke.  I am almost back to complete norman although health wise I feel better because prior to the stroke I smoked cigarettes and those I have given up.  I am not a alcohol drinker so that is no problem, my blood vessels are not fuel line rated and neither is my liver so I have never had a problem with that.  I was born in 1942.

I think that keeping the mind busy with things of quality is good while our brains are healing at least that has helped me and today, 7-8 months after the stroke my short term memory is back to normal.

I would also like to make a suggestion, something that I believed helped me, back in the early Eighties I was a outdoor roller skater, I would skate 20 to 30 miles in a day, to the university and back, 10.5 miles each way.  While doing this it dawned on me that if I always started off on the same foot, always jumped curbs and did tricks in the same exact way, I would become more imbalanced.  So, I started switching leads and came to the point where I could not remember what was once my weak side, I became ambidextrous in a real sense, my right and left hemisphere of the brain were in balance.  When doing an exercise, when in therapy, what you do with your right hand or leg, do also with the left.  I was given a series of tests, actually they took 5 hours one Sunday morning by a research group and I used both hands.

I told the Doctor who was giving me the test, "you know, if you give me this test a month from now the outcome will be completely different", and he said "yes.", he knew that.  That's because we can improve so very fast.

Another thing you may want to do, the medications that is being given, this web site is very good for checking out pills, it has helped me understand why certain things were happening:  http://www.healthsquare.com/drugmain.htm

I am completely pill free, after release I was only taking Dilantin but was anxious to get off those, I was tired of being constipated, tired of not being able to taste or smell food and I was at 99 pounds when I woke up.  They were also messing up my sleep pattern also, the last one I took with the permission of Dr. Robert Spetzler was mid December.  

Unfortunately Medical Marijuana is a felony unless you live in a more enlightened country such as Holland, Canada or England and possibly other places.  Dilantin does what the name pretty much implies, it dilates those blood vessels and so does pot but without the nasty side effects.  

Hopefully one day the human animal will awaken and figure out how to have a swell world, one where fairness and love reins but let's not hold our breath.

Finally, the morning I was having a stroke I was on the internet with a group of fellow professionals from around the world.  I left a message which I forgot about, there are 7 weeks out of my life that I don't remember, had a few wild dreams though, but last week a friend sent me a link to the message that I posted,  when I read it I was shocked but laughter cured it, the message simply said:  Splat.

Take care, think positive, the possibilities of life in the universe is only limited by what we can imagine, if being a species of animal was all that we had to look forward to, I think that I would be sick.  :  + )

Love and Peace,

Rod Williams