Sorry for the silence, but this has been a medical week with re-opening for one-day-only Brother Juniper’s. On the latter, some of you may be old enough to remember a “chain” of restaurants called Brother Juniper’s. It was run by a religious order, and to cut a long story short, most of that order converted to Orthodox Christianity and the restaurants (save one) closed. My Church location came about because of this conversion, and once a year in connection with the Talbot Street Art Fair they re-open the restaurant for one day only doing certain favorite sandwiches. We actually still have some of the equipment and signage from the ones in Indy in our basement, which we bring up and use for the event. I’ve been working cleaning and prep most of this week in between doctors and dentist and other delights.
The great news is that I finally was able to get the latest round of neuropsych/cognitive testing done this week. As I mentioned in this post, I wasn’t expecting much out of it directly other than the data. My goal was to use it as a springboard to testing and therapy I think could do some good. I ended up surprised in that I did get something unexpected out of it.
I’ve had some of the standardized testing before (in fact remembered some bits of it as we were doing it), but they hit me with a couple of new tests. Turned out, the doc had actually read up on my case, listened to what I said instead of the usual, and thought some additional data would be good.
He almost blew it at one point, stating that he wasn’t sure it was a direct hit because of the lack of burns/blast injuries on the outside. If he had studied up a bit more, he might have known that many/most do not have those injuries. It’s a bit of ignorance that I’ve grown to ignore as doctors, more than most, hate to be told they are wrong (and can make interesting notes in ones file that are not helpful long-term). This one seemed a little irritated that some therapists had made suggestions/statements rather than doctors on high, but hate to tell him the therapists in my case have been like conspiracy theorists: they are well ahead on points, by about 63-2. I further note that I had no burns or scars EXTERNAL. No one, including the useless first neurologist, thought to do any imaging to try and determine if I had burning (or scarring) internally.
I did ignore that because of what he brought up next. If you did just the basic standard testing, my results still clock out high and there is no major sign of impairment. However, with the additional tests and looking at it not straight on, but from a different perspective, two things came up.
I won’t go into all the details, but the problems remembering things/learning new things most likely stems from the conditions not being met to form new memories. Several factors, but it did remind me of something I had been advised to try at the LSESSI conference: play with a pencil, stick, heavy bookmark, etc. when reading or trying to learn something new. Need to remember to share this with someone else at Church having some issues.
The second part was that I don’t do well in “noisy” environments, figurative that is. My ability to handle multiple levels of information and stimuli is not good. In fact, my ability to react to all of it and make good, swift decisions is not good at all. Add in my reduced reflexes, balance, etc. and I am off point. In fact, I am off point on several levels/operations. I can still work through things (and do) but it takes me a lot longer than it used to. I may no longer the the point on any team, but I remain one who can gather, interpolate, evaluate X-order effects, and plan accordingly with sufficient time.
Which is frustrating, as I remember when this was not so. Which adds its own issues to the mix. I can still do, but structured, ordered environments are best for me.
It’s good to have this, and/or to have some of this confirmed. It also should help with trying to get physical therapy and more approved out of the neurologist. We will see, but it gives me the data to amend my action plan/experimentation on myself so as to refine some of the methods and goals. It may or may not help with the insurance game, but if I have to fund things it lets me know where to invest my funds first.
It’s also good, and in this doc’s favor, that he brought up intermittent issues. Most docs automatically assume that anything intermittent is psychological because they can’t see and/or study it in a steady state. Since a lot of lightning strike/electrical shock survivors have intermittent issues that are physical, it creates a tense situation with the docs. This doc did not dismiss, but noted that some of the issues above could and likely did contribute to the intermittent issues.
So, glad it is done. Glad to get more out of it than expected. Now to fold that new data into the action plan and continue to move out. Want to make the most of this new life. Onwards.
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
