neurorehabilitationFromTheTrenches

As the title suggests, I'm going to talk once more about my double vision. What do you mean that wasn't clear? OK, I'll admit it, that was a cynical ploy by me to appeal to my Japanese and Honduran readerships. More on that in the Appeal section. One of the many take-homes I had from Autonomie was a factoid I learned from my Logopädin. Namely, the reason for the ubiquitous eye-patch seen on a pirate, is not what you might believe. My memories of pirates, from my childhood, were based on the stereotypical pirate with the eye-patch and hook-for-a-hand. I put 2 and 2 together, with no google to research, and deduced that he must have accidentally gouged his eye out. I thought it was safe to assume that an eyepatch is to prevent infection of, and staring at, a wound the pirate had received or inadvertently given to himself. I could not have been more wrong. As I have since confirmed, the eye-patch was used unintuitively to give the wearer the power to see in the dark. Imag...

Happy brain injury awareness month! I failed in my new year's resolution, to submit an article each week. This necessitates two actions. Firstly, and most importantly, I need to urge you to submit a guest article, as I've said, in any language, declan.treanor@gmail.com -- we have google translate, so it's not too much to expect readers of this blog to use it -- and, secondly, I mean to compensate for a weak February, with a busier-than-usual March. We might even break our current record of 8 in a single month. This month is perfectly primed for a record, given that it started with a weekend and has 31 days. Last weekend, I enjoyed a visit from my friends Cathal and Stephen. As you can see Cathal introduced sophistication to Bergedorf with his coat. It even got its own seat on the plane, both ways. This was helped by the corona virus, but who'd expect a coat like that to have to stay crumpled in a ball in the overhead luggage compartment? ...

As promised, here is my review of the wonderful establishment, that is  Autonomie Therapiezentrum Aschaffenburg .  I have it on good authority that their website will be updated soon. I made it home on Friday with the help of Claire's brother, Jack. This was my second 2-week period of neuro-rehabilitation there, and it won't be my last, here's why: They offer an intensive neuro-rehabilitation program, consisting of Logopädie (speech, in my case), Ergotherapie (equivalent to occupational therapy), and, of course, Physiotherapie. All this therapy occurs, for the most part, with the aid of  'cutting-edge' technology, with an emphasis on the brain. So, the clientele include patients with neurological conditions, such as Stroke, Parkinsons and TBI. The practice is staffed with young, enthusiastic people, complete with murals such as the following on the wall. Thanks to therapy that focused on my breathing, while talking, the logopaedie helped me to make gain...

Greetings from Aschaffenburg. That’s where Autonomie is, and so where I am, following the first week of my second round of intensive therapies. Expect a full review, later this week, as soon as I get a few pictures, of this wonderful facility. That’s the song DKV, my health insurer, employs to pacify their customers, while they’re on hold. Claire has spent several hours, since September 2017, listening to this. In my case, it’s very apt. When Dr Ottes first recommended Autonomie, last summer, I was still a bit delusional about my prognosis, half expecting to be skipping out of there after two weeks; I think I even enquired about that very likelihood during my initial consultation, prior to starting with them last time. The thing about neurorehabilitation is that it requires complete dedication; the willingness to do whatever it takes. I count myself very lucky to have Claire on my team, as I would have given up by now, if left to my own devices, and resigned myself to a comfortabl...

I finally got finished reading Professor Robert Sapolsky’s first book . I’ve been reading it for over a month. This was down to my slowed processing, but also because, about half way through it, I decided to use the process of reading the book as training for the return of my single-vision, by removing the eye patch during reading. It was a triumph for my vision but also my education. This is more science than we saw with the Baboons in A Primates Memoir, but don’t be put-off, it’s every bit as engaging, which would be expected from this fellow; the cover of the book brags of him, the following compliment, from no less of a man than Oliver Sacks CBE FRCP, “one of the best scientist-writers of our time”, and, based on my experience, I’ve no reason to suspect even a slight exaggeration. I’ll say this for him, only Professor Richard Dawkins had less noticeable, grammatical errors. I only noticed one in the two books I’ve read of his, so far, but that’s perhaps down to good editor...

Guest Article: This is a timely guest article from none other than Claire Fastner, reliable as always and moving me to the resolution's promise of 4 in January. This is a picture of the actual postcard Declan wrote and sent to ourselves while on our fateful holiday in Malta. I am not superstitious, so I just wanted to share this as it is pretty remarkable how well he captured what lay ahead. If the accident hadn't happened, we would have thought nothing of this postcard. Since the accident happened it has become a treasured artefact. I still remember the moment Declan wrote it. We had just gone to St. Paul's bay and had returned from a trip to a tiny island.  Here's actual footage of our journey. We sat in the sun and had a spare postcard, one depicting the salt pans on Gozo, which we had visited days prior when we had stayed on Gozo.  Thinking back to Gozo, another memory flashes back: We went on a scooter ride through Gozo. Suddenly, it sta...

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to submit a minimum of one blog article every week, so here I am. This will be the first article containing my new section, called 'Records'. This will provide a status update on the three records, mentioned last week; namely, exercise biking, rowing and ski-erging. My new fitness regime is going well, in Veganuary. It consists of the usual, with the additional, weekly record attempts, which will be dealt with later, in the new 'Records' section. As well as these, I have also started new training for my arm, which will also be covered later, in the ‘ My Tree’ section. This section will be used from now on, for commentary on my ongoing training for my hand and arm (henceforth, H arm, note the capital ‘ H’, very Germanically, denoting a noun ). I have finally almost finished Professor Robert Sapolsky’s first book “ Why Zebra’s don’t get Ulcers ’ , so, you can expect a glowing review next time. Which reminds me, This blog ...