Healthy progress

When I was not walking as well as I am now, being dizzy and having a lot of knee pain at the time, I set my step count goal to 3,500, which may seem really low, but I was lucky to reach it maybe 3-4 days a week at most. After the gel shots in my knees and the physical therapy for the dizziness (primarily caused by a malfunction in the Vestibulo-ocular Reflex (VOR) [where you have a dysfunction in turning the head and focusing on a point at the same time] with a little Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) [where tiny calcium crystals build up in an area of the inner ear where they should not be, causing dizziness], I'm walking better. I keep a collapsible cane with me, but I haven't been using one full-time anymore. I told myself when I met my goal for seven days a week, I'd move up the goal. So... On six days last week, I was over 4.000 steps. On four, I was over 5,000, and on one, 6,000. I'm going to move it up in 500 step increments--so up to 4,000 for now, and then if I can get it up to 4,000 consistently, I'll move it up again. I'd like to at least get up to 5,000 steps a day. Wish me luck.

BTW. I got a call from my neurologist Friday afternoon and he'd gotten the report back from my MRI early. Everything looked normal. In addition to the dizziness, we'd been checking on the very frustrating memory issues I've been having and trouble finding words, especially names of things/nouns. He is under the impression that it is not my brain, or even ageing, but rather side-effects of some of my medication, which is unfortunate, because it is extremely important that I stay on said medications, and if I were to try to find an alternative, it would be bad, as what I'm on is working very well and it can take ages to find the right medicine otherwise. He said that unless it gets markedly worse, he wouldn't recommend pulling me off of them. If it does, then we could reconsider or put me on additional medication (something I'd like to avoid if I can). But I'd asked for an evaluation because I was afraid it was a kind of degenerative aphasia, which is a form of dementia, and at least we've ruled that out. So yay!

Blissful coolness

So, I'm broke, but I managed to pay for the air conditioning to be fixed, so things are much more pleasant in the house.  It was funny, I don't see any reason to tell YKWIA this, as he would be terribly offended, but when I called to see if I could get the fan motor that was maybe one tick up from the cheapest part the tech quoted, the lady said that he'd actually given us an estimate on an original Coleman part that is factory-authorised, but knowing money was an issue, had given us the quote based on a senior discount.  So Tuesday came and I left my debit card with YKWIA and apparently the fan blade itself was so rusted in place that it wouldn't move, so the tech had to get that order brought over, which took awhile, but he got it fixed.  I guess that's what burned out the motor in the first place--it rusted over the winter because when we first turned it on in May, it pretty much worked for just a few hours if that. When I got home, I asked how much more the fan blade was.  'I don't know. I just handed him your debit card.' That struck fear in me, as while I had extra money in my account, it was earmarked for my car insurance.  So I went to my e-mail and it turns out that the tech did the complete repair for the original quote, without charging for the blade at all.  Yay! I really liked them--we went with Synergy, and the tech's name was Zach Taylor and he did an excellent job.  I have to thank my former boss for pointing me to them--she'd heard an ad and directed me to them.  That night, I didn't know what to do--I had to sleep under a cover and I wasn't drenched in sweat that morning, nor did I have the 'break-out-in-perspiration-as-soon-as-you-get-out-of-the-shower' issue.  But because I'd kind of gotten too used to that, I didn't sleep super well that night.  I did last night, though.  Yes!

Yesterday was mostly about medical testing.  I did work from noon to 4:30 pm, but I had an EEG at 7:30 am and an MRI of the brain at 10 am.  I had gone to my neurologist concerned over periodic dizziness (I think now that it's vestibular, but we needed to rule out other concerns).  I also expressed concern that my memory issues have gotten worse, and while it's probably normal ageing, I've done a lot of replacing words that I have had a hard time finding with the opposite, stuff like that.  Now I have ADHD, the inattentive types, so maybe it's just partly that, and as we get older there's more information to juggle.  But I've had several untreated concussions, and my family doctor and I wanted to rule out any chance of dementia or early Alzheimer's, a personal fear of mine given my great-grandmother's battle against the latter.

Anyway, the EEG--which was quite interesting, by the way--was negative for any of that.  My brain's not slowing down, even though it sometimes seems that way.  And the MRI was fine, too.  I came home yesterday and looked at the MRI scans they'd given me at Lexington Diagnostic Center.  Not that I know how to read an MRI at all, but you can kind of look for light or dark areas that don't fit the rest of it, and I didn't see anything.  This morning my neurologist's office called and said it was fine.  I did get put on a beta blocker that is good for essential tremor, a benign tremor that can make your hands shake when you hold a spoon or write, or hold a letter, or even a phone, say if you've got it above you in bed. :) Not that you should be lying in bed looking at your phone when you should be asleep, right?  Anyway, it's a small dose and it's good for anxiety, too, according to my psychiatrist.  It does seem to be helping.  Otherwise, I got a clean bill of neurological health.  I just am going to have to accept that my memory is not what it once was (and in truth, it was good when I was young, I didn't have to take notes in high school, but I dealt with a lot less information).  Given my experiences with anxiety and depression, it's no wonder I've had some impact on daily life.  And I tend to compare myself to YKWIA, who has an eidetic memory, rather than say, your average 51-year-old. :)

Today I won the parking behind the building (which is funny, as I'd reserved it yesterday since I was coming from my appointments, so I'm a little spoiled--I have parked there two days in a row), so I took Samantha, my co-worker to her car both days, but today after that I went over to the pharmacy for my pen needles (which are a pain to get anywhere else if you don't have the prescription on you, like you can shoot up heroin out of an insulin pen, thank you, Kroger).  Then I went and got YKWIA from our friend's, the one he's helping who is battling cancer.  Since my schedule has shifted a half-hour earlier and I hadn't had to go to my car on the shuttle, even with the trip to the pharmacy we were home about 5:30 pm.  He was really beat, so he went to bed, and he's still there.  I'm going to wake him in a bit to take his medicine.  I ate, and then realised I was pretty tired, too.  I worked very hard and very steadily today.  I like my new job, but I can't ever say I'm bored.  So I settled down for awhile with the cat about 7 pm after I'd fed the animals and brought the dog in--who actually wandered around the yard and acted nearly normal.  I woke up at 9:45, started some bread making (now that the temperature and humidity are back to where they should be), filled the dishwasher, put away plastic dishes, washed the ones in the sink, took out the trash and recyclables, and took the Herbie and Rosie (the trash and recycling containers, respectively--we name ours here in Lexington) out to the kerb, and generally straightened up a bit.  Now I'm listening to Pandora and spending some time on the computer.  We're about an hour from bread.  The cat's on my bed again.  I think I'm going to put the flowered quilt back on the bed, as I don't have to worry about sweat stains now.  But that might be a task for tomorrow morning--the cat is quite happy and quiet at the moment, and we like to keep it that way.  So I have a task to do online and then I may lie back down till the bread machine beeps and listen to music.  My phone turned off, as I let its charge run down, so I'm playing the music on the computer.  I may do some brain exercises that go with an application on my phone that are pretty challenging, too.  Just to help out on the memory issue--which I do fine with the memory tasks on that.  So maybe it literally is just in my head.  I don't know.

Alright, I am definitely getting some water and finishing up here.  I also should work on a book review by the end of the week.  And I just got another published.  Yay!

Good night.

I am pathetic when it comes to chess

Now granted, I hope to get better using a little chess game on Windows 8 where you can play the computer. But, gee. I'm not great at sudoku, either, but I can at least do the easy ones without notes. I can see I need to do some brain exercising. :) I am, however, very good at crosswords, word finds, Scrabble, Mahjong (the type on the computer that involves matching; I've never played real Mahjong), Hearts, Rook, Spades, Gin, and Spider Solitaire. I'm a little iffy on Freecell, although YKWIA is a whiz at that. I was also taught a version of solitaire as a kid that was sadistic, in which you couldn't move anything at all once you placed it and you only got three times through the pile. I didn't realise until computers came around that the rules were different. Which is sad, as we actually had a copy of Hoyle's Games (I still have it) in the house. You would think after winning something like three games in five years I would have sat down and read it rather than accept something at face value.

This is kind of cool

and a little eerie, considering it involves brain implants. But still....

Paralyzed woman moves robotic arm using thought alone: Using the BrainGate neural interface system, a woman paralyzed by a brainstem stroke serves herself coffee for the first time in 15 years.

By implanting a 96-electrode sensor the size of a baby aspirin onto the surface of their brains, researchers have enabled two quadriplegic participants to use their thoughts alone to perform tasks with two types of robotic arms.

The BrainGate implant -- and the resulting Jedi mind tricks -- may be sort of anxiety-producing to some. But the smile on the face of the woman who hadn't been able to serve herself coffee in 15 years put a fine point on the progress the technology is affording.

Did you see this?

This is your brain on sugar: UCLA study shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory: Eating more omega-3 fatty acids can offset damage, researchers say

"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid sweetener. The syrup is widely added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes roughly 47 pounds of cane sugar and 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Well, it does make sense

This is talking about video games, of course--of all sorts. I still wonder if they've studied non-video roleplaying games and their effects. I should look that up.

When Gaming Is Good for You

Videogames can change a person's brain and, as researchers are finding, often that change is for the better.

A growing body of university research suggests that gaming improves creativity, decision-making and perception. The specific benefits are wide ranging, from improved hand-eye coordination in surgeons to vision changes that boost night driving ability.

Maybe that's why I finally seem to be getting a clue

Brain is not fully mature until 30s and 40s

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research from the UK shows the brain continues to develop after childhood and puberty, and is not fully developed until people are well into their 30s and 40s. The findings contradict current theories that the brain matures much earlier.

You have to be pretty desperate to seek an organ donation

and in many cases, it comes out as a miracle cure. And then there's this sort of thing...

Brain Amoebas. Organ Transplants. Brrr.

The CDC’s weekly bulletin today describes that nightmare scenario come true. Last year, four people received the kidneys, heart and liver of a 4-year-old boy who died in Mississippi of encephalitis that was assumed to be a rare reaction to flu infection. Weeks after the transplant, the two kidney recipients developed neurological symptoms — spasms, seizures, visual disturbances — and were hauled back to hospitals for evaluation. MRIs showed ring-shaped lesions in both their brains. That sent investigators back to re-examine the boy’s death — and revealed that while he did have encephalitis, it wasn’t because of flu.

It was because he was infected with a newly recognized pathogen, Balamuthia mandrillaris, a species of amoeba. It had passed to the four recipients via his organs, and grew in them with an assist from the immune-suppressing drugs they were taking to prevent rejection.

First of all, the deaths and illnesses of recipients were the only real clues that anything was wrong. Two clusters are described in the article, with a total of five people dying (including the two donors). The only real treatment was to put the others on a regimen of drugs that includes one not available in the US except under direst emergency.

This shows that 1) any time you deal with human tissue--even tissue that's been carefully scruitinised--you run the risk of passing along a pathogen, because the possibilities, while not quite endless, are there, although in practice it's thankfully rare that something fatal gets through, 2) there are pathogens we know very little about and don't occur much (this one has only been found in about 200 human cases), so they don't get studied much, and 3) there's just something terrifying about an organism that you know so little about that the authorities THINK it might be caught from inhaling amoeba cysts in dust. Yeah. Breathe in. It's things like that that make us hypochondriacs insane. Oh, and the kicker? The little boy was from Kentucky and it's unclear as to whether he caught the amoebic infection here or in Mississippi. Yeah. They could be anywhere, hiding in dirt. Here's to hopefully strong constitutions.

Oh, and here's a nice fact from Wikipedia (which needs some updating in some areas of the article, but this was nicely attributed*):
'Balamuthia is most easily identifiable in a brain biopsy performed on an individual suffering from Balamuthia meningoencephalitis. The amoeba cannot be cultured on an agar plate coated with gram-negative bacteria because unlike most amoeba, Balamuthia mandrillaris does not feed on bacteria. Instead the amoeba must be cultured on primate hepatic cells or human brain microvascular endothelial cells, or HBMECs, the cells that constitute the blood-brain barrier.'

Um. Am I reading that right? It eats brains cells? Well, I guess something other than zombies have to, but yuck!

*Martínez AJ, Visvesvara GS (March 2001). "Balamuthia mandrillaris infection". J. Med. Microbiol. 50 (3): 205–7. PMID 11232763.

I hope there's hope

Kennedy Diagnosed With Brain Tumor

Ted Kennedy has his baggage, but he's served our country well for many years. I hope his health improves. The tumour is in his parietal lobe, so near the speech centre. No one has said so far whether surgery is an option.

What if you were given one more day?

Brain-injured firefighter's brief awakening recounted

In 1995 Donny Herbert, a firefighter, was injured when a roof collapsed during a fire, robbing his brain of oxygen. For a decade he lay in a bed with minimal brain function. And then, one day, he woke up, talking non-stop. His doctor had used a combination of drugs used to treat Parkinson's, depression, and ADHD to try to stimulate his brain. His three oldest boys had grown to adulthood in his absence. His youngest had grown from toddler to teenager and could sit down and talk to his father in-depth for the first time.

The following days were nowhere near as prolific, but were full of hope. And then Herbert fell and his brain suffered bleeding, and he lapsed back into the state he had been in, finally succumbing to pneumonia and high fever in 2006.

Now a book chronicles their story. It is a bittersweet story, of course. But that one day gave them closure and hope. What would you do if you were given one more day with a loved one you'd thought you'd lost forever?

Not surprising, although it should probably be more

Your Mind is 60% Cluttered

Your mind is starting to get cluttered, and as a result, it's a little harder for you to keep focused. Try to let go of your pettiest worries and concerns. The worrying is worse than the actual problems!

How Cluttered is Your Mind?

Well, at least I'm coordinated with my wardrobe

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?