Saturday Comics

For Better and For Worse
Lynn Johnston - 2013/12/13

"It's daddy -- he's in the hospital !!"

Dilbert
Scott Adams - 2013/12/09

"Hello, random subordinate ..."

Garfield
Jim Davis - 2013/12/13

"I only fell off the ladder twice this year!"

Betty
Delainey & Rasmussen - 2013/12/12

"Marvellous handmade card without a signature!"

  
** 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 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 and Dilbert.com.

*** Changed from "Pickles" to "Betty" -- "Betty" is a excellent cartoon and Gary Delainey & Gerry Rasmussen are authors/artists/cartoon-strips and they live in Edmonton.

Eclectic Stuff

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

Hydrogel Implant Enables Light-Based Communication With Cells Inside the Body

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

This is so blasted simple.

1. Find out how neurons recruit neighboring neurons to help with a task.
2. Attach these implants next to the neurons needing help using the technique found in step 1.
3. Turn on the light communication.
4. Ask your doctor why the hell they aren't working on something so simple even an idiot can figure it out.

A Massachusetts General Hospital press release so your doctor has no excuse for not contacting them. Go here...

As researchers develop novel therapies based on inducing specific cells to do specific things, getting the right message to the right group of cells at the right time remains a major challenge.  The use of light to communicate with cells has been restricted by its limited ability to pass through tissues.  Now researchers at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital  have developed a way to deliver a light signal to specific tissues deep within the body.  They describe their accomplishment in the current issue of Nature Photonics.

"Scientists only began investigating light-activated therapy a few years ago, but it is generating huge interest," says Wellman investigator Seok Hyun (Andy) Yun, PhD, senior author of the study.  "One of the best known example is use of optogenetics – activation or deactivation of brain cells by illumination with different colors of light – to treat brain disorders. But how to deliver light deep within the brain or other tissues has been a common problem.  The implant we have developed may help solve this problem."

Light passing through an optical fiber (left) can either carry in a signal that stimulates the activity of cells embedded in the hydrogel implant or bring back a signal generated by cells responding to something in their environment. (Harvard Bio-Optics Lab/Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass. General Hospital)

I’m Fully Supportive of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) Technology!

Kate Allatt
A Rocky Stroke Recovery 

November 30, 2013

I had this, ‘Right vertebral artery dissection and occlusion on 7/2/10 with an acute infarction of the pons. (thrombolitus of the baslar artery.’

Not great. For two weeks I was officially (medically) considered to be in a PVS state, when in fact I was in… Scary. Horrible. Traumatic.

So asked what I thought of brain interface computers, it’s no surprise that I have an opinion on this!? Wiki says,

‘The brain–computer interface (BCI), often called a mind-machine interface (MMI), or sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device. BCIs are often directed at assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.’

‘The field of BCI research and development has since focused primarily on neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. Thanks to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s.’

I am a MASSIVE BELIEVER IN NEUROPLASTICITY, as I am being able to unlock the mind that is trapped in the physical shell.

To educate you:

• An ‘unaware wakefulness state’ is now considered the old Persistent Vegetative State, or PVS label.
• A ‘wakefulness state’ is where the patient cannot communicate, but is a thinking, feeling individual, just like they always were. (Me!)
• But neurologists still often get the diagnosis wrong between PVS and a ‘wakefulness state’.

(Scary, though I’m not surprised, especially by what loved-ones tell me.)

We need BRAIN COMPUTER INTERFACE technology!!

See the original article:

I’m Fully Supportive of Brain Computer Interface (BCI) Technology!

in

A Rocky Stroke Recovery

Aphasia, Five Weeks After My Stroke

Grace Carpenter
My Happy Stroke

Friday, November 18, 2011

SSTattler: As well, see How The Brain Works (for kids especially!).

When I woke up in the hospital after the stroke, I couldn't speak, spell or read. I could understand a lot. One of the language centers, Broca's region, had been damaged in my brain.

This video clip shows what my speech sounded like, five weeks after the stroke, in March 2010.

(Note: It's hard to follow that I was trying to say, of course! I was trying to say -- in a nutshell -- is: "my memories of those first few weeks are already fading. Your brain can't remember everything! But I also I think that I've been listening more intensely, especially the first week at MGH, because listening was all I could do." If you're bored, you could fast-forward it the end, to see my demonstration of my arm movement.)

My love and thanks for my family, especially Neal, are beyond words, especially for being there at that scary time.


Standard YouTube License @ Grace Carpenter

See the original article:

Aphasia, Five Weeks After My Stroke

in

My Happy Stroke

Orthopedic Rehab Run Amok

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

December 4, 2013

Rehabilitation may include regaining flexibility, strength, endurance, and coordination.  When PTs treat orthopedic cases (e.g. broken hip) they focus on flexibility and strength.  One hour treatment sessions provide some work on endurance, but therapists assume endurance will increase as clients move more at home.  Coordination can be ignored because people with orthopedic injuries have intact brains.

To reduce pain and increase flexibility in the shoulder de Jong et. al. treated 46 stroke survivors (1). Subjects in the experimental group were placed in one of two positions (photo on left) and shoulder muscles were given electrical stimulation for 45 minutes twice a day every day for eight weeks.  Subjects in the control group were placed in a sham position (photo on right) and forearm muscles were given electrical stimulation for the same amount of time.  "In the experimental group some participants reported that they considered the intervention to be very arduous, pain and spasticity medication were prescribed more frequently, and protocol compliance was lower (p. 250)."  If you have a tight shoulder can you imagine being trapped in either of the positions on the left for 90 minutes a day while your muscles were forced to contract for 45 minutes without a rest?

Shoulder flexibility and pain did not improve and neither did function during ADLs.  Using electrical stimulation to force muscles to contract does nothing to retrain the brain.  Assuming muscles can work together in a coordinated fashion is OK for orthopedic cases, but stroke survivors must learn to recruit and coordinate numerous muscles that have been paralyzed.  PTs like de Jong typically ignore complex coordination because they treat in barren, unchanging environments that require only a few repetitive motions.  Walking clients on flat floors in wide open spaces does not prepare PTs to think about the wide range of coordinated movements the upper extremities must perform.  Working on one isometric contraction had very little chance of improving ADLs in stroke survivors.

1. de Jong LD, Dijkstra PU, Gerritsen J, Geurts A, Postema K. Combined arm stretch positioning and neuromuscular electrical stimulation during rehabilitation does not improve range of motion, shoulder pain or function in patients after stroke: a randomized trial.  Journal of Physiotherapy. 2013;59:245-254.

See the original article:

Orthopedic Rehab Run Amok

in

Home After a Stroke

One October Morning

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

It was early October, right around the time of my deposition, and I had just finished up with Bob's morning routine: disengaging the night pump, mixing his morning meds, flushing his tube, when I heard the distinct sound of a helicopter hovering near our house.

Now this is not highly unusual. We live in downtown, in a large city, and often choppers can be seen and heard hovering near the interstate if there is a traffic accident, or around the stadium on the day of a big game, or dashing to and fro from the hospital's rooftop landing pad.

So I didn't think much of the situation and I leashed up Boomer and headed out the front door for our morning walk.

The sun was just beginning to rise and the clouds in the eastern sky glowed orange and purple and red. I looked up, toward the interstate, expecting to see the helicopter there, but it wasn't. When I turned, I was rather surprised to see a bright reddish orange helicopter hovering directly above our garage in our backyard. Which was curious, to say the least.

But I still didn't think much about it. And Boomer and I headed east, down our block, on our usual route toward the alley. We were walking at an old dog's pace, Boomer stopping to sniff and pee along the way, when the helicopter flew from the back of our house to the street and turned east and followed us.

How I Regained My Speech, Starting with Two Little Words

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

September 26, 2012

An excerpt from my book, "The Tales of a Stroke Patient":

This no-talking situation was really starting to get to me, big time. I thought, What if I didn't say another word for the rest of my life? What if I had to motion to things constantly and nobody paid attention? What if there was an emergency and I couldn't call for help?

The what-if questions were making me anxious and depressed. I didn't have one thought about what I should do. But then I realized something that shook my innards to the core. I was becoming invisible to others. And that feeling of invisibility, that I couldn't go on this way forever, became my modus operandi to do something about it.

About three weeks into Rehab X, it was just about lunchtime and I had concluded my morning therapy. The Transport guy delivered me to my room and I nabbed a CNA to help me into bed. I was going to take a quick power nap before therapy would resume again. I could smell the food in the hallways but by this time, I had gotten used to not eating. I just applied another layer of Vaseline to my cracked lips -- the same hand to squeeze the tube and apply it--when an LPN walked in unannounced.

Do Not Talk to My Parrot!

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Wanda's dishwasher quit working so she called in a repairman. Since she had to go to work the next day, she told the repairman,

"I'll leave the key under the mat. Fix the dishwasher, leave the bill on the counter, and I'll mail you a check. Oh, by the way don't worry about my dog Spike. He won't bother you. But, whatever you do, do NOT, under ANY circumstances, talk to my parrot! I MUST STRESS TO YOU: DO *NOT TALK* TO MY PARROT!!!"

When the repairman arrived at Wanda's apartment the following day, he discovered the biggest, meanest looking dog he has everseen. But, just as she had said, the dog just lay there on the carpet watching the repairman go about his work. The parrot, however, drove him nuts the whole time with his incessant yelling, cursing and name calling.

Finally the repairman couldn't contain himself any longer and yelled,

"Shut up, you stupid, ugly bird!"

To which the parrot replied.....

"Get him Spike!" 

See - Men just don't listen!

Apology, Rant, Retrospect, and Goals for 2014

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I've been pretty scares from the blogging world for the past two months in writing, reading, and responding to all of your blog posts, and I apologize for that.

Life has really gotten the better of me. Part of me wants to bury my had in the sand, but that's against my nature. But the though is nice and tempting.

I tend to lead by example. That's my approach to life and ministering, but it's hard.

Financially, we are at a place where I never wanted to be again...borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. The cushion we had in case of emergencies and unforeseen necessities, is gone. Prolonged illnesses can do that- husband's terminal disease and my stroke. Come in January 2014, we will be in debt again with no way of circumventing it. So much for my debt free life style. SIGH! I did enjoy it.

If You Knew……

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Dec 9, 2013

This blog is awesome.  A year ago she wrote the post that I have linked and I think about it all the time.  I mean it’s a year later and I’m still thinking about it.  She asks in the post “If you knew a stroke was coming, would you have done things differently?”  If I knew that at 30 years old my life would be completely turned upside down then I don’t know.  I was 30 when this happened and the doctors that “treated” me completely f’d up my life and other than finishing school, I didn’t get to do anything that I had planned for my life.  I really don’t know, maybe I’ll never know.  I’m glad I have the education that I have but if I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it in practice would I have gone to PT school?  I don’t know that I would’ve.  Do you think you would have done things differently?
 

See the original article:

If You Knew……

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Still Too High - But Stroke Deaths Are Falling

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Even though stroke is the leading cause of permanent disability in the United States, stroke deaths have been declining.

Not to say that stroke rates are still too high - especially with the young. And strokes - often preventable - still claim too many lives.

Still, this article showed at least a glimmer of good news about how U.S. stroke deaths fell 30 percent over the past decade:

• It is possible that the most important reason for the decline is the success in lowering Americans' blood pressure, which is the biggest stroke risk factor, he said. Other reasons for the decline may include reductions in smoking, improved cholesterol levels and better treatments for stroke patients.
• "We don't know how much all of the sources are contributing," Howard said. "Certainly, we want it to keep going down. But if we don't understand why the numbers are decreasing, we can't work toward that trend."
• Howard said the 30 percent decline in stroke deaths in the last 11 years is "a big deal, so you could argue that our battle is won. But I think [there's still] a lot to be accomplished in this area."

Yes. A lot remains to be accomplished.

See the original article:

Still Too High - But Stroke Deaths Are Falling

in

Stroke of Faith

What About Recoverers Guilt?

Barb Polan
Barb's Recovery

December 9, 2013

People generally know the term “survivors guilt,” referring to guilt felt by some people who survive a trauma that results in another person dying or suffering some other way.

A common example to explain the emotion is what’s felt by someone who misses a plane that ends up crashing. The one who missed the plane feels guilty that others died while he/she lived. "Why was I saved when the others were not?" The guilt is exacerbated if the survivor knew one of the dead; additionally if he/she had had negative feelings toward the dead before the plane departed. For example, a child who screams, “I wish you were dead,” to a parent who subsequently dies in a car accident, often feels guilt. All of us know, though, that the child’s anger had nothing to do with the parent’s death.

Similarly, if I and someone else have strokes, and the other dies, I can feel survivors guilt. "Why did I live while the other died?" A survivor can feel it despite not being responsible for the other’s death.

Stroke survivors frequently help me look at situations in a novel way. Recently, one used the phrase “recoverers guilt,” and it opened my eyes to a concept that is counter-intuitive: Do stroke survivors who recover well feel guilty about others who don’t?

Daniel Wolpert: The Real Reason for Brains

Uploaded on Nov 3, 2011

http://www.ted.com Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert starts from a surprising premise: the brain evolved, not to think or feel, but to control movement. In this entertaining, data-rich talk he gives us a glimpse into how the brain creates the grace and agility of human motion.


 
Standard YouTube License @ TED

Statistics from September 1 / 2011 to December 8 / 2013

John C. Anderson
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Stroke Survivors Tattler

Statistics from September 1 / 2011 to December 8 / 2013

 #  |  Analytics      |    % | Blogspot        |    % |

----+-----------------+------|-----------------+------+

1.  |  United States  |  40% | United States   |  41% |

2.  |  Canada         |  35% | Canada          |  34% |

3.  |  United Kingdom |   7% | China           |   7% |

4.  |  Australia      |   3% | Ukraine         |   3% |

5.  |  India          |   2% | United Kingdom  |   2% |

6.  |  Germany        | < 1% | Germany         | < 1% |

7.  |  Philippines    | < 1% | France          | < 1% |

8.  |  France         | < 1% | Poland          | < 1% |

9.  |  New Zealand    | < 1% | Russia          | < 1% |

10. |  Singapore      | < 1% | Australia       | < 1% |

----+-----------------+------|-----------------+------+

Total Countries = 131 | 100% |                 | 100% |

1. SSTattler Analytics based "Web Hits per AdWords Campaigns" (Est. money/campaigns/...)
2. SSTattler Blogspot  tools based "Web Hits per (physical web) Country"

I tried statistics 1) Analytics (from Goggle) and 2) simple hits by Blogspot (from Goggle) for more than 2 years in the past history. Analytics is a great software program but it concentrate on "money/..."; Blogspot tools is very simple and it will tell you the total (physical web) countries.  I prefer to display the Blogspot total physical countries - on the right-column near the top but I've still got Analytics for SSTattler - just e-mail SSTattler11@gmail.com if you need it.

Right-Column ---->

Monthly Graph - Nov 8th to Dec 8th 2013
TOTAL Pageviews from Sep/1/2011

RMR: Rick and Dr. Popsicle

Uploaded on Sep 29, 2010

Rick learns how to survive being submerged underwater in a car with his old friend from the University of Manitoba, Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht.

Standard YouTube License @ The Rick Mercer Report

---------

Saturday News

Contents:

• Headline - Urinary Incontinence
• Comics   - For Better or For Worse, Dilbert, Garfield, Betty
• Eclectic - Many articles from other bloggers and mostly about "stroke"...
• Trailer  - Rick Mercer Report - Intelligence, humorous, politics in Canada.

Def'n: Urinary Incontinence

Urinary Incontinence
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also:
Urinary Catheterization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Urinary incontinence (UI), involuntary urination, is any involuntary leakage of urine. It can be a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners. Enuresis is often used to refer to urinary incontinence primarily in children, such as nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting).

Causes

SingHealth

The most common types of urinary incontinence in women are stress urinary incontinence and urge urinary incontinence. Women with both problems have mixed urinary incontinence. Stress urinary incontinence is caused by loss of support of the urethra which is usually a consequence of damage to pelvic support structures as a result of childbirth. It is characterized by leaking of small amounts of urine with activities which increase abdominal pressure such as coughing, sneezing and lifting. Urge urinary incontinence is caused by uninhibited contractions of the detrusor muscle. It is characterized by leaking of large amounts of urine in association with insufficient warning to get to the bathroom in time.

Video: Urinary Incontinence

Continence Part 1 of 2 

Uploaded on Feb 19, 2011

Discusses how a stroke can effect continence and the patient's recovery process. Examines the various treatments or techniques that can help to overcome or better manage continence.


Standard YouTube License @ AGWSCS 

Saturday Comics

For Better and For Worse
Lynn Johnston - 2013-12-06

"...you can't ride in the baby seat !"

Dilbert
Scott Adams - 2013-12-06

"...to use Facebook to waste time at work."

Garfield
Jim Davis - 2013-12-06

"My Aunt Orpha used to say..."

Betty
Delainey & Rasmussen - 2013-12-06

"If Junior can show videos..."

  
** 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 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 and Dilbert.com.

*** Changed from "Pickles" to "Betty" -- "Betty" is a excellent cartoon and Gary Delainey & Gerry Rasmussen are authors/artists/cartoon-strips and they live in Edmonton.

Eclectic Stuff

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

How to Hide a Bag of Pee

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Sunday, September 29, 2013

When Bob received his first prescription for condom catheters, the medical supply company sent the typical Medicare approved 35 condoms, 2 leg bags and 2 bedside bags. The leg bags strapped to the thigh with latex bands. These worked fine in the chilly winter months, when Bob wore long pants, but I began to worry how this was going to look in the warmer months when he wore shorts.

I mean, who wants to go around in public with a bag of pee strapped to your thigh? Because, truth be told, it is not always convenient or easy to empty it right away. And even empty, this thing is ugly...

The leg bag holder as supplied by Medicare.

A Pee-culiar Situation

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

September 26, 2012

An excerpt from my book, "The Tales of a Stroke Patient":

I had a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain) and my brain wasn't giving the signal to urinate (pee, in the common vernacular just about everywhere). In other words, I felt the urge, but nothing was coming out. Urinating is just one of a myriad of things to which I have never given any thought. This scenario is a common one: you have to urinate, you go, you wash my hands--or not, and that's that.

But two weeks in, I still hadn't urinated yet. Some people believe if you hold urine in your body for twenty-four hours, you'll die. Well, I don't know about that, and I'm writing this blog, so rest assured, I am still here. So let me fill you in on the urine and how it was extracted from my body. Two methods were used: the Foley catheter and straight catheter. There is a difference between the two, but they have the same outcome: they both drain urine from your body so you can be a happy camper until the next time.

Not how hard you get hit, but how much you can get hit... Rocky Balboa!!!!

Kate Allatt
A Rocky Stroke Recovery

August 12, 2013

Omg 2010-2013 especially or what?

‘Life is not about how hard you can hit, but how much you can get hit & still keep moving forward.’

Rocky Balboa

I needed to get at ease with myself, our kids, my husband and find a new equilibrium.

Yes, its true we’ve felt more hit, much harder and more often, than most over the last 3.5 years.

Maybe, I’m perhaps just more honest and open about that? Is it just that we/I are all more vulnerable and emotionally delicate than others?

I’ve realised that I have more residual effects of my stroke than I ever really acknowledged.

Predictors of Gains During Inpatient Rehabilitation in Patients with Stroke -- A Review

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Saturday, November 9, 2013

And if you idiots would think for just a little bit you would realize that stopping  the neuronal cascade of death resulting in less dead and damaged neurons would be the most helpful thing to do rather that figure out which ineffective stroke therapy is the worst. 
http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/757fcb0219d89390,forthcoming,8120.html

Enoch Chang       University of California, Irvine
Eric Chang            University of California, Irvine
Samantha Cragg University of California, Irvine
Steven Cramer    University of California, Irvine

ABSTRACT

Stroke remains a major cause of disability. The cost of stroke rehabilitation is substantial. Understanding the factors that predict response to inpatient stroke rehabilitation may be useful, for example, to best individualize the content of therapy, or to maximize the efficiency with which resources are directed. This review reviewed the literature and found that numerous variables were associated with outcome after inpatient stroke rehabilitation. The strongest evidence exists for factors such as age, stroke subtype, nutritional status, psychosocial factors such as living with family prior to stroke or presence of a caregiver. Functional status on admission, urinary incontinence, post-stroke infection, and aphasia each can also impact prognosis. Strengths and weaknesses of cited studies are considered in an attempt to inform design of future studies examining the factors that predict response to inpatient rehabilitation after stroke.

See the original article:

Predictors of Gains During Inpatient Rehabilitation in Patients with Stroke -- A Review

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

Stroke Rehabilitation

Richard (Dick) L. Burns
Live or Die: A Stroke of Good Luck

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Next on the ladder of success (see Chapter 20 of my book, "Live Or Die - A Stroke of Good Luck") are the very important rehabilitation nurses.

These conscientious and devoted persons are essential to helping stroke survivors relearn the basic activities of daily living and the basic functions of life.  They educate and show routine health care, medication, skin, movement and special needs.  They are closely involved with helping stroke survivors manage personal care issues, bathing, controlling incontinence.  This latter is a common problem and survivors readily adapt or regain this ability with proper strengthening of pelvic muscles and special exercises.  These qualified nurses guide the survivor in handling catheterization and other hygienic methods of handling any continued problems in these areas.  And they work with the survivor to reduce risk factors that might lead to a second stroke and provide training for caregivers.

Medicine has come a long way and it gets even better.  Recovery takes months now, not necessarily the years it took me.    

Dick Burns
http://www.liveordieburns.com/

See the original article:

Stroke Rehabilitation

in

Live or Die: A Stroke of Good Luck

Developing New Class of Blood Thinners Continue

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Photo from the 

National Library of Medicine

For a few years, I took
warfarin (also known as Coumadin) daily. I had to be careful in diet, in the timing of the medication and getting blood tests monthly to make sure my blood was not too thick, not too thin, but rather, to paraphrase Goldilocks, "just right."

The drug, also famously used as rat poison, has been in use to prevent clot-type strokes for decades. You might have seen the TV commercials lately for new drugs coming on the market to replace warfarin. Now, new blood thinner edoxaban was found safer, as effective as warfarin:

• "Personally, I think it will be used. We know this drug is safer than warfarin," said the study's lead investigator, Dr. Robert Giugliano, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
• But it will enter a market that already has three other new medicines vying to displace cheap, decades-old warfarin. 
• It aims to compete with Xarelto, sold by Bayer AG and Johnson & Johnson, and Eliquis sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer Inc., which belong to the same class of drugs as edoxaban, as well as a similar medicine from Boehringer Ingelheim called Pradaxa. ...
• "If you look at the four new drugs, they're more similar than different," said Dr. Mark Link, a professor at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston, who was not involved in the trial. "All these drugs are safer than warfarin."

Warfarin, of course, can cause bleeding, bruising and other medical problems. On the downside of the new drugs, costs will be far greater than the cheap generic warfarin. Still, worth discussing with your doctor.

See the original article:

Developing New Class of Blood Thinners Continue

in

Stroke of Faith

The Teaching of Talking: A Way to Help Others Speak

November 23, 2013

What it is, and what its not...

It’s a way to talk with others to help them speak.

(It’s not an app, or a workbook….)

It’s not an app…… It’s not a workbook.  It’s a way to engage a person who has difficulty talking into a conversation.  A conversation that has meaning.  It’s a way to help someone speak, whether child or adult.

The Teaching of Talking Method is also being used by therapists and parents as a way to help children and adults who have dysarthria, stuttering, voice difficulties and other types of speaking difficulties.  It is a way to pull a therapist, teacher  or caregiver away from programmed instruction where the “exercise is paramount” to a way of talking and interacting.  That is how speech and language are learned.  Through an interaction, a dialogue, a sharing of information, or a need to be expressed and be satisfied.  Remember that speech and language is learned.  It is acquired by being exposed to a language in an environment where language is spoken, or modeled.  It is a way we learn.  We watch, and listen while we observe people in the environment and then model them.                                                        

Alcohol

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

It has come to our attention that you are frequently under the influence of alcohol. To clear the air, you are required to answer the question below.

Which direction is this car going?     

Thought so, you are drinking way to much !!!

MyCerebellarStrokeRecovery

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Dec 2, 2013

About a year after I had a stroke I started a blog on a whim.  I thought – seriously I remember thinking this – that I’m a physical therapist, I know everything about recovering from a stroke.  I should start a blog and tell people things.  Ummmm.  LOL!!!!  I didn’t know jack shit.  I thought I had this great, unique idea of starting a blog.   Again, ummmm, no.  I had no idea that there was this wonderful community of stroke survivors who had blogs.

Well, a year and a half later after having this totally original idea of starting a blog, I now have 226 followers and I’ve made a ton of new friends.  This blog has become something I never in a million years would have expected and is sometimes my reason for getting through the day.  Apart from my dog and cat.  They’re always my main reason for getting through the day.  Sooooo I guess the point of this post is to say thank you everyone, thank you for giving me a reason to get through the day.

In March, it will be 3 years for me.  Everyone that has had a stroke knows what that means but for those that don’t and just subscribe to my blog because I’m so hilarious March will mark 3 years from the date of my stroke.  I only worked for 4 years.  I REFUSE to be unemployed and collecting disability for longer than I was working.  That will so not happen.  So someone give me a job.

See the original article:

MyCerebellarStrokeRecovery

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Oopsie Daisy! My Bad

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Boy oh boy, when I do something wrong, I really do it. Today I was giving Babs the Bunny her brush out and I made a discovery. Part of rabbit grooming is checking their vent periodically throughout the day to make sure feces hasn't matted over the works. This is crucial for a angora rabbit like Babs is.

As it would happen there was junk matted in her hair. It becomes a whole huge production with one hand. Luckily for me she's a good bunny. I gathered the bowl of warm water and an ample supply of paper towels and q-tips. I placed her on her back on my now non-functioning arm with her head tucked between my arm and my side. Meanwhile I'm talking to her calmly and rubbing her belly. She likes that.

As I was cleaning her up, I pulled on her vent to make sure she was clean and out popped a tiny 1/4 inch penis. So long story short, Babs the Bunny is now Buddy the Bunny. I'm sure glad it isn't Spring when I would have tried breeding him. Oy vey! That would have been a nightmare! Now I know to purchase a Babs for him.

See the original article:

Oopsie Daisy! My Bad

in

The Murphy Saga

Cerebellar Stroke

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After  Stroke Blog

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Cerebellar stroke

Somebody gave my book a crappy review because there's nothing specifically about  cerebellar strokes. But there is. A stroke can happen in the cerebrum, cerebellum or brain stem. I don't have anything specifically about the cerebrum or brain stem strokes or cerebellar strokes. I just have stuff about stroke.

Is there something inherently different about cerebellar stroke vis-a-vie strokes in the cerebrum or brain stem? No. What about a stroke that hits the posterolateral thalamus? Maybe the folks who have had a stroke that hit the posterolateral thalamus (or was exclusive to white matter or only hit the pituitary gland, or any of the other dozens of structures in the brain) should get their own chapters or books.  Actually, I'd love to see that happen. In the mean time, my book is a review of the neuroplastic process that encompasses all of those. Recovery from all of them fall under the same neuroplastic model of stroke recovery.

Stefan Larsson: What Doctors Can Learn From Each Other

Published on Nov 14, 2013

Different hospitals produce different results on different procedures. Only, patients don't know that data, making choosing a surgeon a high-stakes guessing game. Stefan Larsson looks at what happens when doctors measure and share their outcomes on hip replacement surgery, for example, to see which techniques are proving the most effective. Could health care get better -- and cheaper -- if doctors learn from each other in a continuous feedback loop? (Filmed at TED@BCG.)



Standard YouTube License @ TED

RMR: Rick at Winterlude

Published on Feb 26, 2013

Rick heads to Ottawa to help with Rideau Canal ice maintenance and try his hand at ice sculpting at the annual festival.


Standard YouTube License @ The Rick Mercer Report

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