Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News ▶︎ November 28st / 2015

• Definition: Pediatric Stroke

Pediatric stroke is a stroke that happens in children or adolescents. Stroke affects about 6 in 100,000 children. Stroke is a leading cause of death in children in the U.S. Stroke is different in children and newborns than it is in adults. Children have hemorrhagic strokes as often as they have ischemic strokes, while adults are more likely to have ischemic strokes. Sixty percent of pediatric strokes occur in boys. Causes of stroke are also different in children than they are in adults. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia.

• Video: Pediatric Stroke

       - Helping Kids Recover from Pediatric Strokes
       - Identifying Strokes in Children with Moyamoya Disease
       - Strokes: Recognizing them in Children | Keeping Kids Healthy
       - Teen Stroke Victim Finds Voice at Children's Hospital of Michigan
       - Parents of Daughter who Suffered Pre-natal Stroke Fear Cuts to Special
            Education Threaten Children With Disabilities
      - Girl's Miracle Stroke Recovery at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
      - Samantha Para and the Boston Celtics - Helping Children's Hospital
            Boston
      - Faces of Stroke Ambassador: Bailey

• Headline Blog: Pediatric Stroke
• The Yin and the Yang of Vaccinations and Strokes
• Day 8, I Am Thankful for my Children
• DIY Medical Treatment
• Shrinkage
• FROZEN: A Message about Siblings of Critically-ill Children
• One Parent, Two Parents and Child Well-Being
• I Would Go Stark Raving Mad
• Too Much Salt Can Threaten the Young
• Welcome to the Revolution.
• The Best Therapy I Ever Had... JACK!

• Eclectic Stuff: Many articles from many Guest Bloggers about Stroke
• Blog by Nick
• Education, Education, Education (+ Anxiety)
• Bumps in the Road
• Making Cookies Can Be like Speech Therapy for Aphasia
• Incremental Improvement

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: Pediatric Strokes - More Common Than Most People Think
• Sunday Wednesday Stroke Survival: To California, I Went
• Caregiver: Me
• Jester: Some Good Thoughts For Balance
• TED Talks - Melissa Fleming: The Story of Two Survivors
• Rick Mercer Report: Sturgeon Fishing & To-Do List
• Laid-Back Admin: No Post This Week

• Daily Comics: For Better Or For Worse, Dilbert, Mayes, Doonesbury

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+------------------------------------------
     Dec/26/2015   | Christmas
     Dec/19/2015   | CADASIL Syndrome
     Dec/12/2015   | Stroke and Dementia
     Dec/05/2015   | Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) 

Definition: Pediatric Stroke

SSTattler was no "definition" in Saturday, October 06, 2012 Saturdays News - Pre-Natal & Kids had Stroke.  This a re-publish titled "Pediatric Stroke" with a definition by Wikipedia and links by the National Stroke Association and Health & Stroke Foundation. Unfortunately there is limiting information on paediatric stroke Wikipedia but you have to read at least Cerebral infarction, Brain schema, Intracranial hemorrhage and intracerebral hemorrhage.

Pediatric Stroke From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pediatric stroke is a stroke that happens in children or adolescents. Stroke affects about 6 in 100,000 children. Stroke is a leading cause of death in children in the U.S.

Stroke is different in children and newborns than it is in adults. Children have hemorrhagic strokes as often as they have ischemic strokes, while adults are more likely to have ischemic strokes. Sixty percent of pediatric strokes occur in boys. Causes of stroke are also different in children than they are in adults.

Types of Strokes

Video: Pediatric Stroke

Helping Kids Recover from Pediatric Strokes

Uploaded on Sep 14, 2010

Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a brain mapping technique that's been around for 25 years, Dr. Adam Kirton of the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine is taking an old technology in a new direction to treat children who've suffered a stroke at or near birth. His research is being conducted at the Alberta Children's Hospital's Pediatric TMS laboratory, the only one of it's kind in Canada.

Read the full story in our magazine.

Standard YouTube License @ UCalgaryMedicine

Headline Blog: Pediatric Stroke

Definition: Blog (noun). Add new material to or regularly update to a blog. (≃1990s: blog shortening of weblog)

The Yin and the Yang of Vaccinations and Strokes

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Apr 27, 2014

Vaccines have been hurrah-ed as one of medicine's top success stories which have eliminated a host of dastardly diseases in the US. And stroke in childhood is very rare, affecting about 6 in 100,000 per year, according to the National Stroke Association. So what's the connection between vaccinations and strokes? It all comes down to the ying and the yang.

The Yin

In an article entitled “Vaccine-induced strokes on the rise among young people,” published by Natural News, Heidi Stevenson writes that vaccinations are “the elephant in the room” when it comes to a factor for so many younger people getting strokes.

In October 2007, the American Academy of Neurology published a report and found that “between the years of 1993 and 2005, the stroke rate among individuals under the age of 55 increased by more than 44 percent.” Many health professionals said lack of exercise and poor dietary habits might play a factor as well. But vaccines might contribute, too, says Stevenson, with causing seizures and strokes in the young as well.

Day 8, I Am Thankful for my Children

Diana Smith
Beyond Reality

November 8, 2015

These two happy campers are mine. I have one more that was not with us on this trip.

My daughter is probably the only person on this planet that understands me. Since I don’t have any very close friends, she is the closest thing I have to a confidant. She helps me with financial decisions, organization, and important reminders. That might seem like a lot of responsibility to put on her, but she thrives on chaos. She needs my diversion at times. I can take care of myself independently, and fix my mistakes as I go. It is nice not to make as many as I could though.

My oldest son, not pictured, is very busy this year. He has a new zip code, new wife, new job, and baby due in less than one month. He is a very truthful guy, which I admire, even if it does not serve him well. He also has the drive to take care of himself physically, which the rest of my family is not the best at.

My youngest son, as you can see, needs a little extra love and attention. He is the stereotypical moody teenager. Being that he is a guy, I have no idea how his mind works. At this phase in his life, I annoy him constantly.

I think they are the best. They are certainly my greatest accomplishment. I might not be the perfect mother, but they are perfect. I am grateful for them everyday.

See the original artticle:

Day 8, I Am Thankful for my Children

in

Beyond Reality

DIY Medical Treatment

Barb Polan
Barb's Recovery

Posted 18th June 2014

At 10, my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The inpatient pediatric endocrinology nurse who taught us about diabetes management - Lynn – was encouraging, thorough, and an excellent resource, which was just what we needed as we were overwhelmed by both the diagnosis and the treatment protocol. After three days of training us in the hospital about blood sugar and insulin activity, they sent us back out into the world to cope on our own, with graphs of insulin (Humalog, Novolog, regular, and Lantis) activity vs. time that I just couldn’t understand how to apply. She had to figure out the correct ratio of insulins, based on her blood sugar and what time she’d be eating that day, and then mix them? Lynn, you really can’t tell us exactly what to do?

One of the things Lynn emphasized is that we would always be hearing of “cures” just around the corner, and not to get too excited by them. She said that in the 20 years she’d been in endocrinology, she had heard of dozens of studies that promised fixing the islet cells in the pancreas so that pancreas transplants weren’t the only “cure” option for those with Type 1. In the case of transplants, she said, the “cure” was worse than the disease: anti-rejection treatment took a greater toll on a body than diabetes did.

Shrinkage

Grace Carpenter
My Happy Stroke

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

"Are you stylish?" asks my daughter the other day. She loves the word, even though she's shy about actually dressing up.

I was never very stylish, although I used to try. Then I got pregnant and had two kids. My body expanded, then contracted, expanded, contracted. In different ways. It's also hard to feel stylish when your clothes are often splattered with baby food, body fluids, or kids' paints. When my daughter turned three, I was hungry to change my look. I started wearing skirts, every so often. I bought some shiny ankle-length boots and I wore them two or three times. Then I had the stroke.

"I wish I could be stylish," I grumble. "It's hard to be stylish when I have to wear these stupid Velcro sneakers and my brace every day because of the stroke."

"Don't feel bad, Mommy," says my daughter, with a sympathetic pout. "It's not your fault that your brain shrank."

See the original article:

Shrinkage

in

My Happy Stroke

FROZEN: A Message about Siblings of Critically-ill Children

Juli
A Stroke of Luck

December 22, 2013

I recently saw Disney’s Frozen and I was struck by the message I found in it related to my daughter’s life. Unlike what is so often the case, this time, when I refer to my daughter, I am not referring to Alex. I am referring to Jessica. I sat in the movie theatre between Alex and Jessica. From the very start of the movie I saw Jessica in Anna. She was carefree, loving life. I saw Alex in Elsa, the protective, fun big sister. Just like Elsa, Alex was taken over by something inside her. For Alex, it was a debilitating illness leading to an awful neurologic condition and ultimately a stroke. In essence, it took Alex away from Jessica in one sweep. Jessica was kept separate from Alex’s struggles as a result of her age and the distance that separated the girls as we searched for cures for Alex. To her parents, this was our only option. We were protecting Jessica, trying to allow her life to go on as normal as possible. We even sent her on vacations with other family members while we struggled to save Alex. To Jessica, we just pushed her aside and away. We did not pull her in and make her a confidant in our battle to save Alex. All she knew was loneliness and the empty place her sister used to fill.

I continue to learn about the repercussions this had on Jessica. To Jessica, she was shut out. In a recent interview we provided for a video about Alex’s story, Jessica was asked what part she played in Alex’ recovery. Jessica didn’t know how to answer. This struck me – to me, her role was crucially important in bringing Alex back to us. To Jessica, she was still sitting on the other side of the door – locked away from her sister, from her family.

One Parent, Two Parents and Child Well-Being

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

Posted 30th March 2015

The structure of the family in the United States and other countries is changing.

This change has occurred over a relatively brief period of time. Data noted in the study I am reviewing today shows that between 1970 and 2013 in the U.S.:

• Percentage of children living with two parents dropped 24%
• Percentage of children living with a single mother increased to 23.7%
• Percentage of children living with a single father quadrupled to 4.1%
• Percentage of children living with a grandparent doubled to 6.2%

It is important to understand how these changes in the structure of family effects children across a variety of domains.

This topic is the focus of an important manuscript published in Population Health Metrics. Patrick Krueger along with four colleagues summarized data related to parental structure and child well-being using the National Health Interview Survey.

They grouped parental structure into nine parental groups. Using married couples (comprising 67% of the sample) as a reference parental unit other structural units in the study included: cohabiting non-married couples, single mother, single father, extended married couple, extended cohabiting couple, extended single mother, extended single mother and skipped generation (care by grandparent). Extended modifiers were added to parental structure when at least one grandparent was available and provided direct care activity to the child.

I Would Go Stark Raving Mad

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

February 4, 2014

My hemiplegic hand helps my sound hand do over 100 different tasks.  However, I am often slow or do a modified version of the task.  Despite my self-confidence, dozens of people have offered to do a manual task for me.  A few have even taken an object out of my hand.  Able-bodied people know it is easy for them to quickly manipulate an object -- so why should I do it if they are there?  My response when people offer to help when I do not need it is "I can do it myself, but thank you for offering."   When I say this I always make sure to smile and look them in the eye.  This is a nice way to acknowledge their good heart without embarrassing them when I reject their help.

Yet nine years after my stroke I see that this small group of insistent people will always be there.  After I use the "thank you " response I am going to try a second-tier response to more forcefully rebuff these people.  I am going to say "If I lived in a facility that took me to Wal-Mart once a week I would go stark raving mad.  Do not take away the independence that keeps me in my home."

I honestly do not know how handicapped children ever become independent adults.

See the original article:

I Would Go Stark Raving Mad

in

Home After a Stroke

Too Much Salt Can Threaten the Young

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Salt can lead to high blood pressure. Which is the leading stroke cause.

So, it's disturbing that that children consume too much salt:

▶ About two-thirds of that sodium came from prepared or ready to eat “store foods,” 13 percent from fast food, 9 percent from school cafeterias and 5 percent from other restaurants, according to the report. More than 40 percent came from 10 food categories, headed by pizza and bread and including cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, tacos and soup.

▶ “Some of these foods may not taste salty, but they are top contributors because they do have significant sodium content and children eat a lot of them,” said Dr. Ileana Arias, the deputy principal director of the CDC. “A poor diet in childhood can help lay the foundation for future health problems. And the fact that young kids and teens are consuming so much sodium these days and adopting increasingly bad dietary habits is certainly a cause for concern.”

▶ This is particularly disturbing in light of the fact that one in six children already has elevated blood pressure, a risk for high blood pressure as adults and increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke, she said.

We owe children better chances in avoiding strokes and heart disease.

See the original article:

Too Much Salt Can Threaten the Young

in

Stroke of Faith

Welcome to the Revolution.

Pamela Hsieh
StrokedUP

14 April, 2010

Chicago, IL. 7 July, 2003: A healthy nineteen-year-old girl is at a work conference. She used to be a cheerleader, a volleyball player. She sprinted and hurdled in track, went to England to learn how to row. She was also active in her high school drama club. Never been sick in her life, save the stomach flu once when she was eight. She’s now on school break, the summer before her sophomore year at undergrad. She’s working, and hard, this summer so she can save up enough spending money to splurge with during her upcoming year abroad in Florence, Italy. She’s made over $1000 so far and still has two months to go.

Suddenly, she gets a headache worse than she has ever known. Unbeknownst to everyone around her (who think she’s merely dehydrated), and to her, her brain is under attack: an abrupt, massive cerebral hemorrhage has erupted within her right frontal lobe.

Why? An arteriovenous malformation — a clumpy mess of veins and artery mistakenly connected in her brain prior to her birth — never previously discovered, perhaps because she hadn’t been to the doctor since the stomach flu, has ruptured.

She is having a stroke. A stroke that wipes out every minute movement her brain has recorded and learned since her birth, from the left side of her body.

The Best Therapy I Ever Had... JACK!

Elizabeth
Thankful for Every Day!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

It's amazing how little things just all of a sudden make perfect sense. Jack is a very busy little boy and caring for him has been a bit of a challenge since... well... probably forever, but since surgery it has been a huge challenge for me to take care of him by myself. He's really heavy, busy, and has way more energy than I do.  Last Friday I had a special therapy session that involved grocery shopping with Jack and my speech therapist. She wanted to see how I could manage him and finding all the stuff on my list. Jack was on his best best behavior which made it look easier than normal but it was a success, achievement, accomplishment none the less. I got almost everything on the list and I was able to attend to Jack's needs simultaneously. I forgot to ask the checker for postage stamps... checking out is the hardest part...Jack's done by then, I have to manage the money..and a lot is going on at the end. So, I did really well and I was happy with my ability to manage multiple things at the same time. My speech therapist said that she thinks if I could manage all of what I did that she thinks I'm ready to drive... so that's a BIG deal. I still need to do the driver's evaluation and maybe a class, but being cognitively prepared to drive is a huge accomplishment. As I was thinking about it the only way I think I'm getting there is by practicing attention and multitasking constantly while watching Jack. He is an extra busy boy and that is exactly what I needed to get better. Watching him is the perfect therapy...in every way. He pushes me to my limit every day... and I WANT to rise to the occasion..so I do. At first I was too weak to lift him, so I practiced my weights a million times a day, many times even late at night when I was so tired I thought I was going to drop dead,  trying to get strong enough to lift him. Holding and lifting him was something I wanted so badly... it just HAD to happen....and it did! Jack was my personal physical therapy exercise and motivation. Also, I think reading to kids is really important and Jack loves books, so it was a perfect match to improve my tone, intonation, and prosody, by reading to him with passion. Who wouldn't strive to emote dramatically when your "therapist/sweet little boy" is hanging on every word with the excitement and glee of a two year old? I could hardly wait to read Thomas and the Great Race for the zillionth time with more excitement than any time previously. This was the best speech therapy in town! Same deal for attention and multitasking...which were huge deficits for me post stroke. Jack is always on the move...trying to get into everything and anything. Attention is a full-time requirement and no therapy would have been this demanding. Watching him has been difficult but so super rewarding in every way. Point is Jack is exactly what I needed and I feel so blessed to be his mom. So now I know why I got a wild boy...because that's exactly what I needed!!

See the original article:

The Best Therapy I Ever Had... JACK!

in

Thankful for Every Day!

Eclectic Stuff

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

Blog by Nick

November 22, 2015

Sunday

My partner, Sas, has not been very well this week and send her apologise that she will not be blogging this week. The Doctor believes that it is possible the return of the Pericarditis that affected her in 2014 and a lot of this year.

Sas has asked me to pass on her best wishes to all her friends and followers on twitter and through her blog, and assures them that she will be back soon.

See the original article:

Blog by Nick

in

Sas Freeman

Education, Education, Education (+ Anxiety)

Beth Sinfield
Beth's Story

Thursday, 19 November 2015

One of the biggest hurdles I have started to overcome is returning to education. I have forever wanted to go back to school after my stroke but was never sure if I could do it. I had changed. Not just physically but I was now dealing with emotional difficulties. I now experienced anxiety and the very thought of being around 'normal' people scared me; would they think that I was weird? That my speech is funny? Or think that I was too different?

As most of you know I had just finished my first year of A Levels; I was studying Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and English. I hadn't done too awful I guess, I had got a B, a C, D and E. Then I had my stroke and my education was put on hold... for 3 years to be exact. It was incredibly heart-breaking for me. Here I was, lying in hospital and all my friends and schoolmates were in class, studying. They probably didn't feel like it but they were the lucky ones.

Bumps in the Road

Leslie
Living After Stroke

Paul is back to share a couple more silver-lining stories. Finding the good in the bad can be a lifesaver or in Paul’s case, a trip saver! You can follow Paul’s Tiny Trailer Trip Adventures on Facebook (Tiny-Trailer-Trip-2015).

Life is full of the unexpected, finding silver linings make it easier to cope. Bump after bump, Paul always manages to find a solution to save the day and a Silver Lining to save his attitude.

I recently took a huge meandering trip around the US & Eastern Canada…solo. Sleeping in a tiny trailer (literally a twin bed in a 5×8′ box) in truck stops, rest areas and sometimes at Facebook friends’ houses!

I had two events that could easily been trip and good-attitude ending events, but through silver lining attitudes they were actually good.

Silver Lining #1

Making Cookies Can Be like Speech Therapy for Aphasia

Mark A. Ittleman
The Teaching of Talking

November 23 / 2015

My neighbor, Mike brought us some Argentine cookies yesterday after his family went shopping in a special grocery store-bakery here in Southern California.  My wife and I had one with coffee this morning.

Malka told me a story about some cookies she used to buy years ago.   The company that packaged the cookies provided a recipe.  Well, she tried to make the cookies, but found the dough to be very sticky and she was unable to form the dough into the form they needed to be in before baking.

(Alfajores De Maizena)

Apparently the butter softened and the recipe did not caution the person to put the dough back into the refrigerator.   Malka said she had to make the cookies a number of times before she thought that refrigerating the dough might be the answer.  She was right!   Moral of the story:  Often the recipe or the directions for something are correct, but you don’t always get all the “tips.”

Isn’t that like many other things we learn in life?  We can buy the best books, get the best recipes or follow the best instructional videos, and there will always be things you will have to learn just by doing.

Incremental Improvement

Marcelle Greene
Up Stroke

Friday, November 20, 2015

I don’t want my recent posts to give the impression that once Eric releases the trapped energy in a particular area of my body that it’s cured. It isn’t. The tension can build again and the adaptive habits of the past five years can reassert themselves.

When Eric works on me, I’m able to move correctly for a limited number of repetitions, but my muscles fatigue quickly because they are unaccustomed to exercise and don’t store much energy yet.  Consistent with everything else you’ve read on neuroplasticity, I have to use the muscles repeatedly in the correct way for my body to reestablish healthy muscle memory.

The benefit of my sessions with Eric is that he gives my muscles space to move. An ankle locked like a block of cement must be swung and plunked on the ground. An ankle that flexes, however, lands heel-to-toe and ready to push off for the next step, which encourages the calf muscles to work.