Mind of my Stroked Brain

I keep getting a lot of stroke surveys to fill up from time to time.  I fill these religiously and provide the information the survey asks for. I fill them genuinely as I don't know what it is going to be used for generally.  Do you know the biggest underlying problem I find in all of them (I have not come across an exception till date). They all assume a stroke is a stroke is a stroke.. surely, we can draw conclusions with generalized assumptions.  Unfortunately, a stroke is not a stroke is not a stroke. If we get a headache, stomach ache or any other illnesses/ diseases they somehow can be generalized and we can understand the symptoms, causes and consequences thus having generalized treatments and care.  However, the only thing common for every stroke is that the root cause was deprivation of oxygen to the brain cells causing the cells to either weaken or die.  Where the stroke happened in the brain, for how long, how much impact did it cause and to what functions, the age of th

Transducers Came across this word recently when I was reading something. Hadn't come across it for a while. Its a word and concept I learnt in my electronics course (either in 12th or my 1st year engineering course I am not very sure now) A transducer, very plainly speaking, is something which helps bridging the analog world with the digital world.  For example, take the very simple digital thermometer in our homes. They can't directly measure temperature in digital form. They have a transducer inside which converts the temperature from a analog/ real world scale to a digital world scale so it can be displayed. Generally speaking, we can say it helps bridge the real world with the digital world. When I had my stroke and I was told I will struggle for balance, I was not able to understand why. My understanding (based on my school learning) was that balance is maintained by the inner ears. Of course we were not told how and I never bothered to ask. I just knew balance was maintai

I am guessing you will have heard of sleepwalking.  (the act or state of walking, eating, or performing other motor acts while asleep, of which one is unaware upon awakening; a condition or disorder) In the past month or two, I have started sleepwalking. Now don't let your imagination wild thinking I get up and go walking about. I still can't walk. So I do the next possible thing for me - sleepchatting! 🙂 Its usually between 2 - 4 am. I know the time clearly as its recorded in WhatsApp. Presumably, I get up, I raise my bed inclination (I can't even hold the phone and see the screen at the angle of reclining I sleep) , I start WhatsApp, I find someone (it's not like I message th 1st person in the list), I message someone randomly. Send a message, recline the bed again and go back to sleep.  What do I message ? Luckily it's completely un-understandable gibberish. I will have messaged a sentence of about 5-6 lines, with what looks like words because the letters are sp

When someone goes through a life transforming event like a stroke, they are a completely different person afterwards. In that sense rhe previous person dies that instance and a new person is also born that instance. Others rarely notice or appreciate this death & birth transformation as its not a physical thing but a mental death and rebirth.  In that sense, I am 5 today!  Born on 6th Feb 2019! When I had the stroke, after I could think properly (maybe 6-7 after weeks), also fuelled by the assurances by everyone around that it's only a matter of 6 months or so, I came up with a 5 year plan in my mind. I bitterly realised soon that planning and such things are out of the window for good. About 6 months later, till about a year and ½, it took a lot to accept the reality and get adjusted to the reality that the previous me was indeed dead. Also, the frame of mind was that I was only dead still and there was no recognition of the rebirth (as I couldn't do anything, couldn't

Some days back, I had written about why i feel the muscles have strands and each of them being connected to the brain separately... (https://mindofmystrokedbrain.blogspot.com/2024/01/20240124-balancing-equations.html) Come to think about it, I am guessing that there are such connections and strands for not just muscles but every part of the body - bones, ligaments, tissues, skin and every organ we have. Thinking about it, in orders of magnitude, it probably is in hundreds of thousands at least (maybe even Millions). Here is the most interesting thing. All of them are connected to the brain through the spinal cord. The spinal cord is about 1cm in diameter. Not only that, not exactly circular in cross section but it is hollow like a very long and thin cylinder. The centre of the spinal cord is filled with spinal fluid. It is not circular, but it's given that it cannot be very big with that cross section area.  What follows is the engineer in me speaking.... Well, the hundreds of tho

It is fascinating to read and understand how muscles work. For all my life, (since I had not given it any thought earlier), I simply had assumed a muscle is 1 muscle. Ex, if we say bicep muscle, it was one muscle in my mind (I don't know why I imagined so, but so it was). The truth is very far from it . Each muscle is made up of hundreds of strands (maybe thousands). And the best part (I have practically understood, not backed by any medical stuff) - is that each strand is connected separately to the brain and not as one.  For mechanical enthusiasts, each strand works like a sort of rack and pinion arrangement, operated by a chemical reaction, triggered by the brain. Each strand has two separate connections to the brain - one to work the rack and pinion arrangement each way (to contract the muscle strand and the other to release it or relax the muscle strand). In short, that's how it achieves any movement. By selecting the set of muscle strands to activate (how many most probab