Let’s stay with the stroke / medical science / sci-fi Venn diagram this week, after last week’s Night of the Living Pigs.
In the endless battle against FAKE NEWS!!! Aunty Beeb trailed a story last week about how computers can read our minds now.
[I’m sensing… you want some more whimsy and a soundtrack from the Apoplexy Newsletter]
Continue reading Mind Reading
Address to a Haggis
(extract)
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Robert Burns
I’ve been writing a wee bit in Scots, or Scots forms (Lowland Scots, to differentiate from Scots Gaelic), a lot in recent weeks. Firstly, for a short story that I’ve submitted for workshop tomorrow, and secondly for the Nerd Bait Liederbuch. Continue reading Burns Night
Technology really has changed the emigrant’s experience. This week, I wanted to attend my daughter’s parent-teacher conferences in Brooklyn. There were five of them, and I did two on Facetime, two on Google Video Chat, and one on something called the telephone. As you might expect of a committed Whovian, I rather enjoyed communicating with people in another world by means of futuristic technology and a magic screen.
Continue reading Remembrance Day
First, a couple of updates….
OK. now, let’s press on… To The End. Continue reading To The End
Today’s stories are linked by aphasia. I’ve mentioned quite recently that, while I received a bunch of speech therapy both as an in-patient and from the visiting nurse service, this wasn’t connected to speech issues as such:
“Speech” inc. reasoning, organization, speech, swallowing and memory, at least. No doubt all grouped together for good reason. Have to ask.
— Ricky Brown (@ricky_ballboy) November 14, 2012
Regular readers will recall that my home speech therapy stopped abruptly in the wake of my extended soliloquy to the visiting nurse therapist regarding continuity issues in Doctor Who.
(Image from kasterborous.com)
Continue reading A Trivial Post for Serious People
I’ve had a complicated relationship with occupational therapy for as long as I can remember. Or, since I started remembering things again.
Continue reading Therapy? Yes, Therapy?
[N.B.: This post discusses post-stroke depression and crying, as well as the inspiration to be received from the music of Edwyn Collins. Depression is very common in both stroke survivors and their carers. (Post-stroke depression (PSD) has been reported in not less than 30% and up to 50% of all stroke survivors (Robinson, 1998; DH, 2007a). The prevalence of PSD peaks at six months after stroke.) If you think you or your family/carer may be affected by this issue, please help your recovery by going to your doctor. The National Stroke Association has also published an excellent fact sheet on coping with emotions after stroke, which I’d also suggest you look at if this is an issue for you.] Continue reading Rip It Up