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HAWMC Day 24: Health Mascot

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Hello, to all my readers.  Welcome to Day 24 of the WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge – 30 Days, 30 Posts.  The prompt for today reads as follows:

Health Mascot…Give yourself, your condition, your health focus a mascot.  Is it a real person? Fictional? Mythical being? Describe them.  Bonus points if you provide a visual!

I found this prompt difficult.  With any invisible conditions, it is hard to come up with any visuals to describe the condition, its symptoms and the effects it has on the individual.

However, one of my favourite things in life is butterflies.  I love the symbolism of them – the freedom they have, flying freely.  I also think they are beautiful with their bright colours and different patterns on their wings.  It can also symbolise change – as a butterfly emerges from a cocoon.  I have butterflies on a range of items I own, they are on my wallpaper in my bedroom, pendants on necklaces, on t-shirts and tops I wear, and so on.

Therefore, I immediately knew that due to my love of butterflies, I had to somehow incorporate a butterfly into my ‘mascot’ for my health condition.  So, I have decided due to my condition being caused by a lesion in the brain stem, I have used a brain stem as the body of the butterfly and then have used wings to surround the brain stem.  I have attempted to draw what it would like, which I have found exceptionally difficult as I am not artistic at all, and even more difficult with the tremors in my hands which I am experiencing today.

But this is my attempt:

I know it’s not very good, if someone out there is artistic and could up with something even better which I could use for the blog I would be most appreciative!!  Maybe even producing a banner for the blog instead of the one I have of the willow tree and the sea.

Again, if you have any suggestions, comments, I would love to hear from you.

Until Tomorrow…

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HAWMC Day 23: The Mysteries and Secrets of the Brain…

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Welcome again everyone.  A brand new week has now started, another Monday morning – everyone talks about the ‘Monday Morning Blues’ however I tend to love Mondays as it means a day to get out of the house to volunteer for a local charity.

If you have never volunteered before, I would highly recommend it, the satisfaction you get helping others is fantastic, and if like me you suffer with health problems, helping others is a great way to forget your own troubles for a couple of hours immersing yourself into doing something for someone else.

Anyway, back to the ’30 Days, 30 Posts Challenge’ – today is one of the ‘Health Activist Choice’ Days, meaning that we can write about anything we want.  I have been here in front of my computer for a while trying to decide what to write, so I have decided to choose a topic which I personally find fascinating….

The Brain!!

It is amazing that this muscle, weighing an average of 3 pounds defines who we are, what we are capable of.  Without it, we wouldn’t even be able to survive, with the brain stem responsible for basic vital life functions such as breathing.  Within the structure of the brain is where memories are stored, where our personalities are defined and so on.

However, it is also amazing that while our brain is responsible for us, well being us, there is still many things which are not fully understood by neuroscientists and doctors alike, even considering the advancement in medical science.  In Rita Carter’s fascinating reference book, she writes “the brain is the last of the human organs to reveal its secrets” and also reveals why the brain is so complex and often misunderstood, “the brain is particularly difficult to investigate because its structures are minute and its processes cannot be seen with the naked eye.”

That isn’t to say medicine hasn’t made any advancements concerning the brain – as of course, it has.  The development for example of imaging technology has made it possible for doctors and researchers to clearly view the different structures within the brain.  And what’s more functional imaging reveals even more of the brain’s secrets – as it shows which areas of the brain are active, meaning that researchers are now able to identify which part of the brain are responsible for different functions such as movement, rational thinking and memory amongst others.

Even more fascinating is the mysteries of brain disorders and what can go wrong when a part of the brain is damaged.  There are many disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease and so on that are more easily recognised and much is known about what has gone wrong within the brain and central nervous system resulting in the specific disorder.  However, there are a great many which are not known to the general knowledge, and which is even a mystery to the doctors.  Take, for example ‘Alice in Wonderland Syndrome’, an extremely rare form of migraine which results sufferers to see their own bodies or those of others or even inanimate objects askew.  Meaning that objects or body parts looking either bigger or smaller than they really are.

Another fascinating brain condition is something which I encountered during my time studying for my degree in Psychology.  It is called the ‘Capgras Delusion’ in which a person exhibiting the syndrome believes that a close friend, spouse, parent or other close family member has been replaced by an identical looking imposter.  Although there have been several theories to why this particular syndrome occurs, its exact cause still remains a mystery.

The fascination and interest in neuroscience and the brain may stem from my time reading about some areas of the subject as part of my studies at university.  Or because of my own neurological condition – which also to some extent remains a mystery, such as how or why the brain stem lesion has occurred.  Whether the reason I believe that the brain is still the most mysterious and interesting organs of the human body…

So, there you have it, some of the secrets and mysteries concerning the brain.  Again, I hope you have enjoyed today’s post, please feel free to leave any comments you may have, or any questions, suggestions are also welcome.

Recommended Reading 

The Brain Book by Rita Carter

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

The Neurotourist: Postcards From The Edge of Brain Science by Lone Frank

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HAWMC Day 22: The Things We Forget…

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Welcome to a brand new post on ‘My Brain Lesion and Me’ it’s now Day 22 of the ’30 Days, 30 Posts Challenge of WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge.  Today’s challenge is a nice and short one day, perfect as I’m not feeling the best today.  The prompt reads as follows:

The things we forget…Visit http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/ and make your own version of a short memo reminder.  Where would you post it?

The site ‘Things we Forget‘ is a series of photographs depicting thought-provoking quotes and other uplifting messages on post-it notes and then placed and photographed in public places all around the world.  If I had to contribute one then I would share this:

I find the above quote inspiring, and was written by an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909).  It reminds me that even when I am feeling really bad, when the dizziness is so intense, and my legs are very weak and virtually unable to stand that I am still important, and still have something that I can contribute to society at large, or my community, or even a little job to help my parents.

It is also important to remember, and the quote reminds me of the fact that the struggles that we may face shouldn’t stop us from achieving what we want from life, or things that we may want to do like travel or further our education, and so on.

Where I would place the memo reminder? Well, I would definitely put this in my bedroom, sticking it to the computer – a place where I would see it everyday and remind me to battle on through all my struggles and illness.  I may also share it in the Mental Health Centre, a place I volunteer at once a week, to remind others going through major difficulties and ill-health, something to inspire them to achieve their goals and to travel their long and hard road to recovery…

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HAWMC Day 21: Health Madlib Poem

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Welcome all again.  It’s a bright, beautiful sunny morning outside, on the 21st April.  And time for a new post for the WEGO Health ’30 Days, 30 Posts’ Challenge.  The prompt for today is as follows:

Health Madlib Poem…Go to http://languageisavirus.com/cgi-bin/madlibs.pi and fill in the parts of the speech and the site will generate a poem for you.  Feel free to post the madlib or edit it to make it better…

I have to admit that I hadn’t a clue what a Madlib was, which was where Google came in very handy.  Apparently, Mad Libs is a word game frequently played at parties and is especially popular among children.  Mad Libs (from ad lib meaning a spontaneous improvisation) is a phrasal template word game where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, usually with funny results.        Information taken from Wikipedia.

In this particular challenge, the website given in the prompt asked me to provide words such as nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives and then generated a poem using the words I provided.  The following in a mixture of my words and those of e.e cummings, based upon his poem entitled ‘somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond’.

 Here is my Health Madlib Poem:

alone i always fall, fall almost broken

any room, your lesion lies there invisible

in your most inner brain are things which seclude me,

or which i cannot see because they are too deep

 

your trivial look quickly will turn me

though i have looked at their lights

you feel suddenly dizzy  by dizzy myself as flashes brightly

(grasping tables, falling) her weakness obvious

 

or if your wish be to catch me, i and

my legs will stand very shakily, uncontrollably

as when the scene of this world spins

the vertigo increases intensely

 

nothing which we are to do in this circumstance can

the power of your intense movement; whose strength

compels me with the nausea of its disturbance,

legs buckling and crumbling with each tremor

 

(i do not understand what it is about you that causes)

and reacts; only something in me damaged

the stem of your brain is scarred than all others

falling, not even the crutch, has such fast reflexes

And here is the original e.e. cummings poem of ‘somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond’:

 

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

 

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

 

or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

 

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility: whose texture

compels me with the colour of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

 

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

So, what do you all think?  Please leave a comment below, love to know your thoughts!  Have you created your own madlib poem, please share them, would love to read them.

Until Tomorrow…

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HAWMC Day 20: Miracle Cure…

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Welcome again readers. Today, is the 20th April…which means it’s the 20th Post of the WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge.  And the prompt for today reads:

Miracle Cure…Write a news-style article on a miracle cure.  What’s the cure? How do you get the cure? Be sure to include a disclaimer!!!

Again, this prompt has been somewhat of a challenge for me – as my condition is due to a lesion in my brain stem, there is obviously no treatment, nevermind any cure that can be offered to reverse the damage that has already been done.  However, have managed to come up with a miracle cure for one of the many symptoms that I constantly battle with on a daily basis – spasticity…

SPASTICITY, NO MORE!! NEW DRUG IS FOUND TO RELIEVE THE SYMPTOMS OF SPASTICITY

Written by Rhiann Johns

Spasticity is defined as an “involuntary muscle stiffness, characterised by increased muscle tone and exaggerated reflexes”.  As a result, patients exhibiting spasticity report that the affected muscles feel stiff, heavy and difficult to move, and is often found in neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease and Cerebral Palsy.  Spasticity although the effects can be mild to severe, can interfere with normal functioning, causing difficulty in walking as well as leaving sufferers in severe pain and discomfort.

However, a new drug called Tiptrimax, which is administered by an injection in the affected muscles have found to be highly effective in treating spasticity, with many sufferers reporting their spasticity being greatly reduced after several weeks of taking the drug. One patient reported “I have noticed a significant reduction in the number of spasms that I experience, as well as the amount of pain the spasticity often leaves me in.  My legs seem to be much lighter now, and walking and other movements in my legs seem much easier.  I feel I will now be able to enjoy a more fulfilled life thanks to Tiptrimax!”  This drug is certainly a miracle for me.  I cannot wait to be able to take long walks with my dogs and exercise like I used to before MS came into my life.”

The UK drug regulators NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) have now fully approved the drug and will be available to all patients exhibiting spasticity by September.  It is said the drug can only be administered by a nurse or other healthcare practitioner once a week into the affected muscle areas.  The long-term effects of taking the drug are unknown but there have been no reports of any lasting or significant side effects.

***DISCLAIMER:  THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS ENTIRELY UNTRUE AND ONLY WRITTEN FOR THE 30 DAYS, 30 POSTS CHALLENGE FOR WEGO HEALTH HAWMC.  THE DRUG MENTIONED DOES NOT EXIST

So, that was my fictional miracle cure article for today’s prompt.  Hoped you enjoy and again please feel free to comment below…

Until Tomorrow…

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