Leuty Parker

Tag: #tbi

  • Carb counting

    I’m releasing my diabetes & starting on care counting. This is basing on set doses of insulin.

    Tonight, as I’m trying to get through the food I have left. This is particularly the dried food in the cupboards, I have come to terms that I’ll never get the motivation to cook. Or want to eat.

    I have done spaghetti bolognaise, couscous, lasagna, lentils and sushi (lots of sushi rice, lentils, couscous) & more left in the freezer.

    I portioned out my Japanese dumplings tonight, the amount of tonight’s dumplings, however, was pitiful.

    Carbohydrates needed (for me I’m 1unit of insulin = 10g carbohydrates)

    % carbohydrate in 100g (most food has this in “nutritional information” found at the back)

    X 100 (This ratio is just an average for me, so depending on your doses & how much you eat it may vary. )

  • Optic nerve damage

    https://neurosciencenews.com/m1-optic-nerve-regeneration-22298/

    It has been found a small molecule that can stimulate nerve regeneration & restoring qnerve vision after injury in the optic nerve. Where your brain meets your vision.

    TBIs, spinal cord and optic nerve in the central nervous system (CNS) are problems with seeing, being the main form of disability & 2nd leading cause of death globally. Injuries caused by CNS, being a result in a traumatic loss of the senses, motor response or visual functions (is sight not your main important sense) are potentially manageable.

    Scientists have found a molecule which can penetrate regeneration of nerves, resulting visual functions after the connection of the brain to visual stimulus is injured.

    So maybe there’s hope for loss of sight due to optic nerve damage.

    This would be the best situation to say I have no sight in my right eye.

  • USPs

    So far a while, I put my blog in my routine. I was diligent on posting every day. To build a routine including it, being a way to help me get through my brain injury; a certain time endocrined in my routine. That’s how our brains work; having a time that you are meant to do certain things.

    Don’t you remember in school you had a time for a certain class.

    My blog became less important as other things gained more of my attention, but i want to return to blogging more often as it’s a way to regain my routine. It is something that can help my memory & an introduction to working life.

    Also a way to help/inspire others in my position. So I have to set a theme of this blog, well it’d be like meeting me digitally.

    But as for the theme I have to decide who my target market would be & work out what my USPs are (USP=Unique Selling Point). I think you can probably work out who I’m aiming to read this from what my USPs are, but I’m pretty sure none of my readers are stupid. So here we go;

    I am recovering from a brain injury. Attended @headway for a short time, however I mainly went to use their gym.

    I’m leaning to walk. All of my walking progress is down to my private physio sessions. Done through @neurophysio.

    I’m in care in @leonardchesire in #edinburgh where I live.

    I’m working to commit my leisure time partially to this #blog.

    I’m currently doing an MA in business and management at @uclan

    I have #diabetes. diabetes mellitus, so type 1. A lot of my content may be targeted to the diagnostic community.

    While being vain, I have a fair amount of social capital (those who know me in person can vouch for that).

    I’m fairly #errodite. Into #randomfacts

    I studied #faskiondesignanddevopment at @lcf in London

  • How it happened

    I’ve already done a post on this, but it’s a good introduction to my blog & pretty important to me. So here we go…

    Why I started this blog was to tell my story & to help others in my situation… or make more people aware of how brain injury affects one’s life. So this is how I got my brain injury & details about the what specific bits of my brain were broken ….

    I had a TBI (traumatic brain injury) when I fell off a motorbike in Vietnam & hit my head.

    As I fell from the motorbike, I would have hit my head at such speed my brain bounced around my skull. Like it’s been shaken dramatically outside, so effectively effects the inside of the scull.

    My brain rapidly shifted inside my scull, causing more damage to several areas. It isn’t known what the Glasgow coma scale I was, but they think around 3… or 2… or 1….

    GCS is how impaired someone’s consciousness is. It ranges from 1-15, where 1 is pretty much dead. It is rated on 3 aspects revolving around responsiveness: whether the patient can open their eyes, how well their motor skills are (this maybe testing them with pain) & visual responsiveness.

    This is what medically happened to me (if you’re in the medical profession, I hope you’re impressed):

    There was a diffused amoxyl injury. Intervertebral& a ventricular bleed. In the scull the c7 spinousg process tip fractured. Bleeds caused damage to my optical nerve, so I’m blind in my right eye.

    Edited, now some years later. When I can see all the grammatical errors…. A beautiful reflection of how life should be; every day, a little bit less bad.

  • The C7 Spinousg Process Tip

    This one’s quite technical…. But unlike other parts of the cervical vertebrae (neck region), the C7 is a the part that protrudes behind the spine, towards the skin. It’s located at the back of the neck.

    Because it’s pretty visible & can be felt at the base of the neck, it’s a signpost of the skeleton. The C7 is the biggest vertebrae in the neck are.

    Because it’s so obvious & protruding, it is more vulnerable. So that’s probably how mines a bit broken, & damaged my brain.

  • Right & Left Brain

    I saw this great TED talk earlier today & it really inspired this post & made me want to share with my readers information. It talked about the brain, which made me interested because I have had a brain injury. I want to know everything about everything, too. I digress…what happened to the talker is that she had a stroke, which she went on to analyse.

    A good analysis, focussing on those who know coding, the right brain is like a parallel processor & as it’s very different yet somehow the same, the left brain is like a serial processor.

    The right brain is about the present. It’s is more about the senses, what the present looks like, sounds, smells & feels like. How I picture it is that the right cortex is the creative side. It thinks in pictures.

    Left side of the brain thinks more linearly. Like methodically. All the things we’ve learned in the past, & uses that to imagine how the future can pan out. That side means that the person exaggerates their individuality.

    A great way of putting it is telephone numbers; there are some people who remember phone numbers by what the combination of pressed buttons make, they are using their right side of the brain more. Some just remember the numbers in a linear form. These use the left side.

    In this link it goes into more speech and language details; I have minimal damage of my speech & language .

    You can see the full talk on the link below. https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_my_stroke_of_insight#t-274632

  • Shoes

    My current passion project is designing a pair of shoes. But what I’m really interested in is more then just what they look like, it’s what they do. When it’s style vs substance I’ll always choose the latter.

    The shoes I’m planning on working on. These, however, are a piece of wearable technology, that teaches you how to walk. Because I’m in the process of learning how to walk, I would really benefit from this product. I can also expend what I have learned, in the process of learning to walk, so others can benefit from my hard work.

    I’m very lucky that I have a physio who comes in most weeks who teaches me exercises which will increase my stamina, make my balance better & work on the muscles I need when I’m walking.

    I guess now I need to work out when they’ll look like.

  • How to Walk

    My biggest ale at the moment is that I’m stuck in a wheelchair. I’m currently learning how to walk, which is very time consuming but it’s not like there is anything else to do. My project is I’m thinking right now is a pair of shoes that teaches you how to walk.

    What these shoes could do is have 2 things (maybe more): have a pedometer so it counts your steps (the FitBit is a good benefit benchmark of how there is I current trend on how many steps you take)

    & an NFC which linkes to an app on your phone, reading your progress & it teaches you all the exercises which could link with your phone through the use of NFC.

    This app could teach you all the exercises that will build your muscles in preparation for walking.

    Being in a situation where I’m in the process of learning to walk, & i come from a wearable technology background, this seems like just what I need.

  • Walking

    It’s incredible how many idioms are walking related.

    When walking is so difficult, like how I find it now, is when you really focus on it.

    Some good examples of walking-related idioms are ”step by step” “first you walk, then you run” or even “walking tall”. So walking seems to be central to our species.

    I guess when you focus on it, you become hyper-sensitive to it, probably because all your attention is on it.

    I myself am learning to walk. The process is very long, it’s a step by step process. Forget the pun.

  • Watch this

    I really don’t like to tell people what to do, but this is truly fantastic. When you watch it it’s very pertinent to what I’m going through. Watch it! (It’s on YouTube so if you have the internet then it’s available to everyone)