Fresh test

[Andrew Gray]

  I'm going for a new neuro psych exam tomorrow. It  will start in the afternoon not timed to do my very best. Will be in need of a nap by the end.  It has been 8 months since last test and 7 months of cognitive therapy, we'll see how far I've come. Wish me luck.  Results to follow 

[Richard J]

We all are pulling for you.

[Andrew Gray]

  This set of tests went 6 hours last set 5, i guess it's just different Drs. Somethings felt easer some felt the same . I might be fooling myself. They know me so maybe they won't say I'm crazy

[Cheryl Green]

I hope they didn''t say you're crazy! Both of my neuro psych tests came out that I was a little crazy. One was 7 hours, and one was 4 hours. But you know what I noticed? Neither one did any tests that are specially designed to understand brain injury. They just gave me the same tests they would give anyone. I really think they should be using some specific brain injury tests since they keep you in there for so long!!

Hope you got a great nap afterward and a good night's rest.

[Andrew Gray]

    I saw cog therapist yesterday who gave me the test . She said she just finished the raw scores and had to give them to the Dr. I will not have report till sept 10th, seems like a long time. Bad timing with holidays. I don't remember waiting this long last time. It was a different Dr and I was out of my mind though so I could be wrong. I also think they want me to show improvement from all the cog and pshcy therapy.

[BrokenBrilliant]

Good luck - I have another test coming up in September, too. My neuropsych is splitting it into two four-hour sessions, so they can get real scores about how I really am - not just how I am when I'm tired. Is that something you could arrange, too? You don't want to come out seeming worse off than you are.

[Joseph Barney]

Best of luck!

[Andrew Gray]

Good luck on your test . I was asked if I wanted to split the test, but since I fall off during the day I thought if I did it in one session it would be more like my day. This thinking is wrong since different  tests test different things and will not average out. When someone tells me something I will not do what they say. I will do what I think is right even if everyone says I "might" be  wrong. I at least have the ability to joke about myself, and will let my wife, call me a "dumb---"when it is clear that I know I am wrong.. The scores come next week so we will see what I am.  

BrokenBrilliant said:

Good luck - I have another test coming up in September, too. My neuropsych is splitting it into two four-hour sessions, so they can get real scores about how I really am - not just how I am when I'm tired. Is that something you could arrange, too? You don't want to come out seeming worse off than you are.

[Andrew Gray]

  The results are in. Drum role please. I'm still crazy and dumb as a bag of rocks.  Looks like I ran backwards not just a few steps. I felt so good during the test but my scores went down so much I don't know if this test is showing overly bad or the other showed overly good. Maybe over confidence or meds.  Maybe this is me. 15 minutes for 7 sentences, fixing many mistakes. Back to the brain games.

[Andrew Gray]

  Arthur I'm not sure about you but when humpty dumpty "me" fell it was a neurosurgeon that put me back together again. It wasn't in the fruit aisle of  whole foods. The neurologist who treats my seizures and headaches with meds , that I thank the drug  company's for making. A vary high fat diet does not stop all seizures and coffee will give you more. In 2 day it will be 1 year I do as much exercise as i can eat as well as I can and stopped taking thing that don't show an improvement. I pay a lot for insurance and I'm going to us it. 
Arthur Levine said:

   Well, I just read what I wrote, and it is not what I intended it to be..... The shrink told me once that I should not ever "send" anything I write until I read just what I wrote 24 hours after writing it. Nah.... Here, it's just the way things are.....

>>>> "Maybe over confidence or meds"

It's the "Meds".... You can never have too much confidence. You can however, easily have too much "meds"

  There is as much "wrong" with me as with anybody here. I take absolutely nothing other than Morphine-sulfate and some BC powders and those just when I need really them. And yet I seem to show continuous though possibly, OK,  -- demonstrably -- slowing improvement over the past 10.5 years Not every one has the same level of tolerance towards the same things.

   And I wish I had the ability to be, in spite of what ever it is that is wrong with me, to be as nice and as understanding towards people and their situations as Richard J and Vicky V and Barb George and others here too do.... But I rather obviously do not. But I do make some effort to, I am just not very good, and to be quite honest about it, interested either....

   None the less..... If you want to show and "enjoy" continuous long term improvement and have an on-going "recovery", you will never see such unless and until you give up all except those therapies that are in reality nothing other than proper diet and intellectual and physical exercise regimens.....

   And "Emotional" exercise too..... some sort of a psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist. Talking with someone who is actually intelligent and capable is a very good thing. Just make certain that if you do see one, it is one that YOU seek out and select based on his/her willingness and ability to help you show actual progress and improvement, NOT for his/her willingness to prescribe you something at the first sign of any sort of whine.... I see a shrink, and it is a very good thing for me. She prescribes me nothing. She and I have had quite some discussions on such things, she , like me, believes that psychotropics of all kinds are extremely over prescribed, and are generally written in lieu of diet exercise and intellectual effort, as 95% of those told to do all such things first, will do nothing of the kind. Ever. And that many people even come in stating   just what they want, demanding even, and even stating at what dosage and frequency they want to take them at.

   I have pretty much given up on the modern American medical establishment.... I see one MD now, that's it.... She just keeps an eye on me and makes sure I am not yet dead. She continuously works with me to make certain that the level of morphine I need to obtain the relief I require when I decide I need it, remains at the level that I have it down to, and that I maintain my ability obtain effective relief at that level while neither becoming dependent on  nor suffering from "side effects" of such things.

   I saw several  neuro-psychologist/neurologist "teams" and took several batteries of neuro-psych tests on several occasions..... And what did they show? All of them, show that I have all sorts of deficiencies and that I have all sorts of psychological issues  as well, and that I need all sorts of medications and on-going therapeutic sessions and testing on a regular basis..... What a crock of shit.....

   Neuro-psyche testing may be of some minor use, mainly to help determine where to most emphasize the real exercise and training regimens that might show the most effective long term learning and rehabilitative effect. But otherwise, neuro-psyche testing, and the whole field of practice, is IMNSHO, PURE BULLSHIT! 

   You keep seeing them and all you are doing is spending money, somebodies money on "visits" and tests, and prescriptions. TBI and PTSD and the entire field of psychiatry and neuro-psyche anything is little more than all about money. Money for doctors, money for tests, money for drugs, money for visits and tests to see what bad effects the drugs are causing. More drugs to counter act the combinations of drugs. More visits and tests to see what is now wrong in spite of taking more drugs for more reasons. Take this, try this, take more of this less of that, if that doesn't work we'll try this new stuff....

   Why not try what is known to actually work.... just slowly and not without personal commitment, and personal effort. Diet, exercise--- intellectual, physical, emotional.... EFFORT!!!

  Taking "meds" is so much easier isn't it? And so enriching for everyone, except he/she taking such stuff.... You would do much better to have a couple cups of real whole bean fresh ground coffee with a little bit of honey in it, take a nice long walk every evening, eat 4 or 5 small real food meals every day, spend an hour or two a day reading something, NOT "reading" online, and spend 30 minutes or so every day doing some sort of puzzle thing, spend a couple of hours every day rain or shine hot or cold outside doing something interesting and/or useful.... That's how you'll get, and keep getting, "better". The promises of the gods of pharmacology and their high priest MD apostles are, regardless of what the very same people being those who prescribe such stuff to you will tell you, is little more than bullshit, and at best, purely wishful thinking..... No one EVER developed or have had anything successfully treated because they have a genetic or diet or lifestyle caused lack of anything never seen before 1971.....

   You can disagree all you want and quote this one or that one or point to what/who ever you want to.  That is, and will remain, just the way it is.....

   While at the pharmacy the other day, a 60 something year old fat woman in absolutely pitiful shape was whining about all that was wrong with her and how the doctors weren't couldn't didn't all sorts of thins. I asked why she didn't just try going on a real food diet and start walking and reading everyday and take her some kind of water or weight exercise class. She said two things that I found rather amazing. First that her doctors told her that stuff like that might help, but might not help as much as she wants, and, this is what really got me going..... She that I was wasting my time being so health conscious and paranoid about doctors and drugs, as she had a friend in his late 60's who was a real health and exercise nut case, and he just fell over dead one day.....

   Damn if that isn't me!!! That's the way I want to go..... I want to die just like I live, healthy. I have no desire and even less need to spend year after year as a sick and ever deteriorating numbed and dumbed half dead zombie.... That's not living folks, that's stupidity. Live well, die healthy..... no need to hang around and suffer, period.....

   Be a good American, and do your part to save America from its' impending genetic and reproductive and  "health" care and financial crisis and financial collapse.

   Live right, eat well, stay healthy, and, die fast.....

[Andrew Gray]

•    I have had epilepsy since i was a teenager. I take anti seizure medicine and see a doctor not on a whim. My wife and daughters medical issues I will not get into here. My kids drive into anything they can find, just to piss me off . If that raises your insurances costs to bad. I like you, you  piss me off and make me think.      How do you start a new paragraph. A very high fat diet has been shown  to reduce or end seizures in children who do not respond to medication. Also very high caffeine use can trigger  seizures in some people, not worth rolling the dice. Thank you for getting me started no one around me will say anything to me for fear of what i might do. They think I might get violent.