Saturdays News

Contents of This Week:

• Headline - Darts
• Comics   - For Better Or For Worse, Dilbert, Mayes, Doonesbury
• Eclectic - Many articles from many guest bloggers
• TEDTalks -  Technology, Entertainment and Design
• TadpoleUpdate -  Spokes Fighting Strokes
• RickMercerReport - Intelligence, humorous, politics, ...

Index of Eclectic Stuff This Week

1. Cities/Session: Canada + US + UK + India + [Australia + NZ]
2. Time Out
3. Sunday Stroke Survival ~ The Balloon and Dart Game
4. Billiards Stroke Rehab
5. AFO After Stroke: Once Its On There, Its On There For Life.
6. Selfie Helped Woman Who Was Having a Stroke: She Captured the Whole Thing
7. Fitting Into Cracks Can Be Painful
8. How to Cut Your Budget Quickly and Drastically
9. Five Things I Learned About Ebola: #CDCChat Today
10. Bounce This Along!
11. Stroke Recovery Impact Messages are NOT Good Enough!
12. Dear Anonymous:
13. Lateral Shift
14. Dr. Groucho Got It Right
15. Voiceitt / Talkitt - A Life Changer for the Speech Impaired
16. Glenn Greenwald: Why Privacy Matters
17. Tadpole Update - Spokes Fighting Strokes - Oct/18/2014
18. RMR: Rick and Harbour Air

Definition: Darts

Darts From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SSTattler: In Ottawa we had the Darts for Stroke Survivors  for many years. I came back to Edmonton, Alberta and about 3 years ago we (John A. & Gary G.) start playing darts for stroke survivors every week. About 20 +/- people for the first year in the centre of Edmonton at Ceili’s pub - it was great! The second year, Ceili’s pub changed with no darts boards  (our expression is drat *!&% !!) So, we moved to the Hilltop pub and changed leader to Carrie L. She tried valiantly for the whole year but at the end it was very close to dead - about 10 people tops - so we closed it down.  

• It is about time to start again...?, 
• If you any good ideas, maybe every 2 weeks instead of every week?, 
• Where is a good pub?, 
• Location?, 
• Near LRT?, 
• .... call me or e-mail SSTattler11@gmail.com and we will talk.

 Darts is a form of throwing game in which small missiles are thrown at a circular target (dartboard) fixed to a wall. Though various boards and rules have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules. As well as being a professional competitive sport, darts is a traditional pub game, commonly played in the United Kingdom, across the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, and elsewhere.

Equipment

Video: Darts

Contents for Darts:
1. How to: Beginners, Shoot and Play Perfect Darts,
2. A few darts rules & equipment for disability, deafness & blindness, 
3. A chuckle for the architects, a Dutch guitar player and bad rules about Cheetos,
4.  The last YouTube is very serious between van Gerwen vs Taylor - Premier 
     League of Darts 2013.

1. How to: 

How To Play Darts: Tips for Beginners

Uploaded on Oct 20, 2010

Throwing darts is a popular pub activity, but when played at a professional level it's in a whole new league. http://www.WatchMojo.com works on our stance, grip, aim and shot and gives some advice to new dart players.

Standard YouTube License @ WatchMojo.com

Cities/Session: Canada + US + UK + India + [Australia + NZ]

Dr. Beagle C. Cranium
Stroke Survivors Tattler

% Country Sessions per 3-Quarters
  (Jan-2014 thru Sep-2014)

  | Country         | % Sessions
--+-----------------+-----------+
1 | Canada          |  22.33%   |
2 | United States   |  40.69%   |
3 | United Kingdom  |   7.62%   |
4 | India           |   2.96%   |
5 | Australia       |   2.58%   |
--+-----------------+-----------+

1. Total number of % Sessions within the date range. A session is the period time a user is actively engaged with your website, app, etc (SSTattler: not exactly "User" but close enough).

Maps with Cities / %Sessions      

Daily Comics

For Better and For Worse
Lynn Johnston

Canada Family Events

Dilbert
Scott Adams

Dilbert Office Events

Edmonton Journal
Malcolm Mayes

Politics Views from Canada

Doonesbury
Garry Trudeau

Politics Views from USA

  

** I tried to get low or free price at the people http://www.UniversalUclick.com/ for the images for the cartoons. It was too high for Stroke Survivors Tattler i.e. we are not a regular newspaper and our budget is very, very low. Fortunately, you will have to do only 1-click more to see the cartoon image, it is legit and it is free using GoComics.com, Dilbert.com and EdmontonJournal.com.

Eclectic Stuff

Definition: Eclectic(noun) a person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Time Out

Steven H. Cornelius
Music and Stroke

March 13, 2012

I mentioned in an earlier post that while I was still the ICU, a neurologist, who was interested in music, asked me whether or not I could tap out a steady rhythm. I responded by tapping a complex rhythm loop with my unimpaired right hand (presumably by using my unimpaired left brain). But I didn’t really understand the problem. Nor perhaps did he.

When I began regularly to practice drumming, I used a metronome. Before my stroke, by playing exactly in sync, I could mask the metronome’s click and make it seem to disappear. But now, I wasn’t even close. Ahead or behind? I had no idea. Part of the problem was coordination (I was accurate when using the right hand alone). With my affected hand, however, I couldn’t even figure out when to begin the stroke so as to strike the drum pad at the proper time. Using my left hand also compromised the timing of my right. (More on this in a future post.)

How bad was my time? My violinist wife once came into my office and asked me, why turn on the metronome if I was going to ignore it?  I wasn’t ignoring it, but my best effort was really lousy.

Even so, I used the metronome to discipline my basic tempo while gradually zeroing in on the beat. I came to think of drumming as a kind of musical game of darts. Now that I could throw a dart (a drumstick) and actually hit the wall (hit the drum pad), my next goal was to hit the actual “dart board”—that is, to play respectably close to the beat.  A “bull’s eye” meant masking the metronome’s sound.  That still happens only rarely. But the fact that it happens at all is most encouraging.

See the original article:

Time Out

in

Music and Stroke

Sunday Stroke Survival ~ The Balloon and Dart Game

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Living post stroke is like the carnival game of balloons and darts. You know the one I'm talking about, where you pop three balloons with darts and win a prize?

I have carnival on the brain because the county fair is coming to town next week. Every store, radio station, and television program is running ads for it. Actually, I plan on missing it again as I have for the past twenty years. It's a waste of money for me because I can't ride the rides and the games are rigged towards losing.

So why do I say living post stroke is like this game?

It's almost impossible to break a balloon let alone three to win. I know darts. I have a dart board in my Playhouse. One of those electronics things with all the bells and whistles. I used to play and win in tournaments also. The varying factors in this game are...

• The balloons can move depending on the wind.
• You are trying to break a round, air filled balloon with a sharp pointy object that displaces air as it flies.
• How many balloons have been broken. The more that are broken the more they move. So faster is better for success.
• It's a game of chance and the odds aren't in your favor.

With recovery after a stroke...

Billiards Stroke Rehab

Dean Reinke
Deans’ Stroke Musing

Sunday, February 26, 2012

I was in northern Minnesota this weekend visiting a friend who owns a bowling alley. My bowling was not good the balls that fit my fingers were 14-16 lbs and at that weight I can't really control the swing very well, my regular bowling is with a 10 lb. ball. But the really fun part was playing bottle billiards. The official rules are listed here. Our rules are slightly different, you can't start scoring until you Carom the cue ball off both object balls, either object ball sank in a pocket is 1 point, a carom during a game is 2 points. We use an empty plastic soda bottle. This requires you to really stretch your arm out straight, loosen your fingers or thumb to guide the cue stick. My modification is to place the cue in crook of my wrist or sometimes underneath my wrist. I tried once to put the cue between my fingers but that only resulted in not being able to move the cue at all due to finger spasticity. We played 4 games and a lot of fun was had by all, especially the last game where my team won 31-0. The bars up there had dart games also so that would probably be another therapeutic possibility. So join your friends at the bars and play pool or darts with them. Ordering a diet Coke is acceptable.

See the original article:

Billiards Stroke Rehab

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

AFO After Stroke: Once Its On There, Its On There For Life.

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Warning: ENDING THE USE OF AN AFO CAN LEAD TO FALLS AND INJURIES.  

Never discontinue the use of an orthotic without first consulting the appropriate health care provider. Then call your doctor. Then have your doc talk to any other providers as needed. Then discuss it some more. Thank you.

For years I've been pointing out how what clinicians focus on can hurt recovery. Clinicians focus on having the patient be safe and functional (able to do everyday tasks). Clinicians have the "safe and functional" mantra running through their heads constantly. There are two other things that influence what clinicians will to use to help survivors recover:

1. What managed care will pay for
2. What therapists know about stroke recovery

This leaves a very small group of available options. These options may or may not lend themselves to promoting the highest level of recovery. Recovery, yes. But not necessarily the highest level of potential recovery.

I think the best example of this is the AFO.

Selfie Helped Woman Who Was Having a Stroke: She Captured the Whole Thing

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Oct 6, 2014

One of the many dictionary-type websites defines selfie as, "a photograph that one takes of oneself with a digital camera or a front-facing smartphone, tablet, or webcam, especially for posting on a social-networking or photo-sharing website."

I have done so myself in a moment when I wanted to capture myself with a new hairstyle or a new outfit, albeit without posting it anywhere. Selfies are pure vanity moments, but so what? Everyone is allowed. And hardly no one takes one selfie. It has to be right. The least I took was three--I won't tell you the most--and I was on break and had nothing to do but photograph myself.

Thanks to one woman's stroke selfie, she has put a "face" on the symptoms. Back in April, 2014, Stacey Yepes, from Ontario, Canada, started experiencing stroke-like symptoms. Her docs from the ER told her that her symptoms were just stress and sent her home. Later, it happened again on the way out of the hospital's parking lot.

During that second attack, Yepes recorded a selfie on her Smart phone. When she arrived at the ER again, doctors saw the picture and knew for sure she was having a stroke. (I believe the correct interjection here is "duh").

One vascular neurologist, Elizabeth Carroll, D.O., serves as South Austin Medical Center Stroke Medical Director who saw Yepes stroke selfie. Dr. Carroll says when Yepes initially experienced stroke-like symptoms that went away, she probably had a transient ischemic attack (TIA).

Fitting Into Cracks Can Be Painful

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

October 4, 2014

I learned everyone has deficits when I took a course to become certified to administer tests for Sensory Integration.  My lab partner was in graduate school, but she had to look in the answer book to grade a visual test designed for children.  This made me realize that able-bodied people have so many assets they can compensate for their weaknesses without being aware of it.

A stroke puts deficits in my face.  One example is volunteering to be the Chair of Receiving at my church's Spring Sale.  I can purchase and organize supplies such as price stickers and tape, but I cannot carry them from the office up to the 1st floor when the Spring Sale begins.  I can give my Receiving crew instructions about what to do when donations arrive, but I cannot help transport the donations.  I tried carrying donations to rooms on the 1st floor, but ended up with back spasms because walking repeatedly without a cane makes me lurch side-to-side.  Not being able to carry donations to rooms downstairs is a slap in the face.  I used to be a therapist who lifted paralyzed people out of wheelchairs and now I cannot trust my hemiplegic arm to hold onto objects when I walk up or down stairs.  Asking people to do this for me is a repeated reminder that I am disabled -- a fact I can put out of my mind when I use a cart to transport objects around my one-story house.

Volunteering to help the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) is equally convoluted.  I have had six letters about climate change published in my local paper.  I love the challenge of writing 200 word letters. It is close as I will ever get to writing poetry where every word counts.  But I am disappointed that I cannot participate in rallies because I cannot walk safely in crowds that do not sit down.

Finding things I can and cannot do is a trial-and-error process after I volunteer.  Sometimes it is hard for me to remember to be grateful that there are parts of a job I can do.  I am still learning how to explain this problem to others without sounding like I am whining.  Feeling useful takes a lot more work these days...

See the original article:

Fitting Into Cracks Can Be Painful

in

Home After a Stroke

How to Cut Your Budget Quickly and Drastically

Robin
Rocky Mountain Stroke Survivor

October 10, 2014

There’s this myth out there that some people are immune to poverty. It just isn’t so. What if your primary breadwinner had a medical problem like mine… Not enough to be totally disabled but not enough to earn as much?  Or worse?  But you aren’t collecting on life insurance yet (thankfully!)

What if more economic craziness happened? What if your industry moved overseas or was completely dependent on another industry that crashed? My step dad lost his job due to defense department cuts because his company was hired to do work for them. A lot of my patients do work like painting, concrete, electrical, or real estate and all of them suffered with the housing crash. Entire cities can suffer when a major industry in the area takes a hit.

After what we’ve been through in the last few years, I will never ever let myself get in a position where our core expenses are more than the federal poverty level. I pick that number because it’s an easy, predetermined amount that the government recalculates for us. And I’m pretty confident that unless one of us becomes really badly disabled, we can always manage to earn that much. A friend recently asked for suggestions as she just found out that her husband is going to be downsized and his prospects for finding another job aren’t as good as they once were. This gave me an opportunity to really think about what we did to prepare when I had my stroke and we knew we’d have only a couple more paychecks and what we would do in addition.

Five Things I Learned About Ebola: #CDCChat Today

Bill (William) Yates, M.D.
Brain Post

Oct 2 / 2014


There was a lively Ebola discussion on Twitter this afternoon with members of the CDC using the #CDCChat forum.

I followed the discussion that was lively with many good questions that needed to be sorted out from many that were irrelevant.

There were several CDC Twitter accounts responding to questions showing a high level of respect for Twitter Chat to disseminate information.

Here are the five CDC Twitter accounts that tried to keep up with the many questions.

Here are five responses I found informative.

Bounce This Along!

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Who knew? Bounce This Along... 

The U.S. Postal service sent out a message to all letter carriers to put a sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow-jackets away. Use them all the time when playing baseball and soccer. I use it when I am working outside It really works. The insects just veer around you.

All this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer:

1. It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them. It also repels mice. 
2. Spread sheets around foundation areas, or in trailers, or cars that are sitting and it keeps mice from entering your vehicle. 
3. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too often. 
4. It repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season. 
5. Eliminate static electricity from your television (or computer) screen. 
6. Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television screen with a used sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.. 
7. Dissolve soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a sheet of Bounce. 
8. To freshen the air in your home - Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer or hang in the closet. 
9. Put Bounce sheet in vacuum cleaner. 
10. Prevent thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a sheet of Bounce before beginning to sew. 

Stroke Recovery Impact Messages are NOT Good Enough!

Kate Allatt
Stroke Recovery Tips

October 12, 2014

A stroke is absolutely NOT sexy, let me be clear so I don’t offend anyone!

However, why have we still not made the subject of stroke with politicians, TV and newspaper editors SEXY enough to write about?

How often do you see more than just a few column inches or online pages dedicated to stroke recovery?

Cancer charities have successfully given cancer messages an even higher impact when they talk about giving the illness the ‘V-sign’ on TV.

Yet our national stroke messages seem so utterly boring and not newsworthy, well unless you are a well-known celebrity. (Andrew Marr, Lauren Bacall, ChrisTarrant, Hilary Devey, Jessie J, Sharon Stone,…..) give me strength. Normal people have strokes. In fact anything with a brain can have a stroke, so that includes unborn children in the womb!

While I’m ranting, why are other cancer charities and governments so preoccupied with stroke prevention?

Sure, prevention is very important, but what about those poor people who didn’t actually manage to prevent their stroke happening in the first place? What messages are out there to help us self-manage our own recoveries and possibly contribute to society?

Change the record please and start ‘ass kicking stroke’ and redress your stroke marketing messages to help people try to aspire to recovering more.

See the original article:

Stroke Recovery Impact Messages are NOT Good Enough!

in

Stroke Recovery Tips

Dear Anonymous:

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Yesterday, I checked the Spam folder for my blog. I must admit, I don't do this often and it's been awhile since the last time. I used to check it more frequently, before I put up that "prove your not robot" picture thing on the comment section. Since then, I get very little in the spam folder. Yesterday, I found three messages.

The first spam was offering me "Great deals on Porta-Potties!!!!" Oh-kay. Ha! I hit delete.

The second spam caught me off guard as it didn't make a lick of sense. Posted by "Anonymous", as a comment on my blog about Bob's new I-Pad, on June 16, it read:

"Nice having your own blog where you can delete

truthful but unfavorable comments that you

don't want to face up to. You can't have your generous

blog friends seeing that, although I'm sure some of them

thought the same thing.

Isn't it time you stop using good-hearted people?"

I read this message and thought, Huh? I read it a second time, then a third. Since it wasn't signed, I had no clue who this person is/was or what they were even talking about. So I hit delete.

Then I read the third spam, also posted on June 16th by "Anonymous" about an hour earlier from that second spam, as a comment on Bob's new I-Pad. It read thus:

Lateral Shift

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Oct 11, 2014

A search term on my blog today was “soap note for hip lateral shift mckenzie.”  That was written by a physical therapist.  That is really specific and it uses therapist speak.  I didn’t realize how much I loved and missed this stuff until recently when I started being immersed in it again because of my chart review job and realizing that I will most likely never do it again.  A lateral shift means your low back hurts.  Or maybe your hip hurts.  When a lateral shift is present, your upper body is shifted to either the right or left because (probably because) an intervertebral disc in your low back is displaced (bulging) out to the side preventing your spine from being straight up and down like a good spine should.  Your upper body is “leaning away from the pain.”  It looks like this…… <------

(Pic from here, they have British accents and say physiotherapist, I love it!)  That picture is a bit exaggerated.  The shift is always named by the upper segment so in the picture that would be called a left lateral shift.  So how do you fix it?  Well…….if your shoulders are shifted to the left and you have low back pain, I’ll bet you a million dollars that your pain is on the right side of your low back.  Or in your right hip.  Or you have pain going down your right leg.  To eliminate the pain, first you want to see that pain ‘centralize’ meaning moving the pain to the middle of your low back and not just to one side.  So first you have to address the shift.  There are ways to try this yourself but you might need a PT’s help the first few times.  Here’s the exercise to try on your own.  This is for a left lateral shift which means your shoulders are shifted to the left relative to your hips and your low back pain is on the right.  If the exercises don’t work, here is what a therapist would do.  Then this kind of thing would typically be followed by some by some extension exercises.  These extension exercises would be progressed as much as need be and you would be lectured to about having good posture and then you would be tested bending forward to make sure that doesn’t bring the pain back and if it doesn’t you would be discharged never to be seen in PT again unless you have a stroke.

DISCLAIMER:
    I had a stroke, so don’t you dare listen to my advice.

See the original article:

Lateral Shift

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Dr. Groucho Got It Right

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Groucho Marx might have said it best: "I intend to live forever, or die trying."

I can connect with Groucho after a hole in my heart was closed back in 2007. Click on this link for info about my patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure and why.

The short story version is that the hole between the upper two chambers in my heart apparently allowed a blood clot to circumvent the clot-filtering mechanism in the lung, leading to a stroke in 1998 and a mini-stroke in 2007.

Since then, I've seen lots of studies indicating that this procedure might or might not be the best way to treat stroke survivors, looking at procedure vs. blood-thinning medication. My concern about warfarin (also known as Coumadin) was that as a fairly active person, taking pills that make you bleed easier might not be a good idea. Plus, pills and the related monthly blood tests cost money. I ditched the pills six months after the procedure.

That's more of a long-term concern instead of the relatively short-term outcomes in most studies. However, a recent study suggests that PFO closure may be cost-effective over long term:

PFO closure reached the incremental cost-effectiveness threshold of  < $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained in 2.6 years. Moreover, the treatment met the threshold of < $50,000 per life-year gained in 4.9 years. The per-patient mean cost of medical therapy surpassed that of PFO closure after 30.2 years of follow-up.

Now, I was in my 40s when my PFO closure occurred, so I plan to live 30.2 years (and more, I hope!) afterward.

See the original article:

Dr. Groucho Got It Right

in

Stroke of Faith

Voiceitt / Talkitt - A Life Changer for the Speech Impaired

Whether due to stroke, injury, or lifelong neuromotor disease, many people live without the ability to speak clearly, a disability that can severely affect one’s quality of life. While the muscles and nerves responsible for vocalization may not be functioning properly, a person that’s able to produce even difficult to understand speech still has unique speech patterns. A new startup out of Israel called Talkitt is planning on releasing an app that can translate unintelligible talking into clear speech. Moreover, the company claims it will work with any language, including French and Klingon, because the technology is not language dependent, but is rather user focused.

VoiceItt is developing Talkitt, an innovative speech technology that will enable people that suffer from motor, speech, and language disorders to easily communicate using their own voice, by translating the unintelligible pronunciation into understandable speech. The software based solution can run on any mobile or wearable device, allowing the person to communicate freely with anyone anywhere.

See Voiceitt, Creators of Talkitt:
              Announce Launch of Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign.