Post Op Brain Fog, or Self Abasement?

After Thursday’s surgery, I was advised to avoid making any important or legal decisions within 24 hours of the operation.  Is this because the anesthesia can cause cognitive impairment?  Or is it because the patient can be easily manipulated?

I think both are true.  

I’m old and recently laid off, so naturally I wonder if I can get a good-paying job in my technology-dense field.  So I began to fall victim to my negative self-talk.  On the second day after the surgery, I felt hopeless and despondent about ever recovering financially or cognitively.  It’s as if my darker side began to take advantage of my vulnerable state.  Fortunately I’m climbing out of that well of despair.  And as an added boost I just came across this Psychology Today article, which should help: “Rewire Your Brain and Create a Kinder Inner Dialogue”¹.

I’ve been taking an online course, but I haven’t noticed any degradation in my thought process.  Then again, my thought process wasn’t so great to start with!

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¹https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/everyday-resilience/202504/rewire-your-brain-and-create-a-kinder-inner-dialogue

Dear APA -- Let's Rethink ADD

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. (Attributed to Albert Einstein by author Matthew Kelly)

This is an open letter to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which came up with the term “Attention Deficit Disorder”...

How dare you!  I see myself as Perception Enhanced.  You so-called normal people have a deficit.  I can’t imagine how you can endure such a severely filtered experience.

My inability to block out distraction is my Superpower.  While I might not catch every word said to me in a conversation, I’ve listened to five other simultaneous conversations and determined that the car trouble that the woman is describing is probably due to a clogged fuel filter.  I’m referring to the woman in the red dress who’s standing by the window who’s been nursing the same drink for 45 minutes.

Also I’ve been hearing excess noise from the vacuum pump in the factory.  It sounds like the bearings are wearing out.  It’s been getting progressively worse over the last few weeks.  Why doesn’t anyone else know about it?

I’m wondering which of my idiot coworkers put the toaster oven right under the paper towel dispenser.  It’s an obvious safety hazard!

As well, why is the clock on the fax machine 1 hour 15 minutes ahead?  I can understand how it can be exactly 1 hour ahead as we’ve switched away from Daylight Savings Time 8 weeks ago.

What if Perception Enhanced individuals were in the majority?  You APA folks who are Perception Deficient would have to live in our world.  Suppose I were your boss: “Why didn’t you advise that woman to have her car’s fuel filter checked?  Why didn’t you have the pump serviced before it failed?  Didn’t you notice the sound it was making?  Relocate that toaster oven before it starts a fire!  Why haven't you fixed the clock on this fax machine yet?”

Anyway APA, instead putting so much energy into devising derogatory terms for us, tweaking diagnostic criteria, and developing treatments and therapies, you should direct most of your resources into changing society.  Promote acceptance of Perception Enhanced people and help us find ways to be rewarded for our strengths.

A Mindfulness Diary for the Alzheimer's Patient

I’ve become increasingly concerned about the cognitive decline I’ve been experiencing. Could it be a symptom of sleep apnea or another sleep disorder? Is it related to depression? Am I getting Alzheimer's?

I decided to start tracking episodes of “mindlessness.” I thought to use a weekly planner as a medical journal. I envisioned a planner in which the user / patient could select a symptom and rate its severity. But I saw only regular planners in bookstores. So I searched online for “journal diary for alzheimers patients.” Amazingly nothing related to a downloadable diary showed up. So I decided to create my own.

I found a really nice weekly planner template written in Excel by SmartSheet. I downloaded it, saved it with LibreOffice Calc and modified it in two distinct ways.

First I improved the date calculations. Now the starting date for each week is derived from a global starting date and the sheet name. Thus a new week can be added just by copying an existing sheet to a new sheet and changing the sheet name. The original template contained only five weeks of content; it was necessary to edit the start date on each new worksheet. So adding new weeks was tedious without redesigning the date calculation.

Second, I changed the layout of the page to a two-column format and gave each day the same amount of space. The TASKS and NOTES sections have been moved to the bottom, and TASKS was repurposed into two sections: CATEGORY and SEVERITY. The content in these new sections comes from a non-calendar worksheet, called SourceLists, to allow for easy changes to the lists that appear on all weeks.

Cells A1 through A10 on SourceLists contain the ten categories of symptoms. You can change the text in them and/or blank a few out. The severities are 0 (for no problem), 9 for highest functioning, and -9 for lowest functioning. Originally, I had 0 through 9 to represent symptoms from lowest to highest. But then I realized that I’d like to record good episodes, and a positive number seemed appropriate to represent this condition.  The idea is to jot down a Severity/Category code followed by a brief note.  For example, yesterday I had "-1A: I momentarily forgot that I was driving JC home after I got gas."  The "-1A" code is short for a very slight / brief memory impairment.  Having codes like this can make it easy to use a statistics program (such as R) to chart trends and to correlate with other sets of data.

I found the original list of symptoms in the Alzheimer’s Symptom Diary. I tailored the list to my needs and limited the number to ten to fit the available space.

Here's a link to the PDF document that I'm currently using.  Let me know if you're interested in seeing the spreadsheet source document.  I'm not publishing it out of deference to SmartSheet.  Someone put a lot of effort into designing that template, and I don't wish to subvert their business model by publishing a derivative work.

Quotes from David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo's "Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment"

Here are quotes from "Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment," by David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo...

Andrew Newberg, M.D., director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania, uses sophisticated brain mapping and imaging techniques to examine how meditation changes both the structure and function of the brain.  In his book How God Changes Your Brain, Newberg states that meditation not only modifies specific areas of the brain but helps the meditation practitioner behave and express emotions and a more positive manner. 

Newberg's work shows that meditation enhances blood flow as well as function in an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate, an evolutionary newcomer that mediates empathy, social awareness, intuition, compassion, and the ability to regulate emotion.  This structure sits in the front of the brain and wraps around the anterior of the corpus callosum, which is the thick network of neurons that bridges the two hemispheres.  In addition to these functions, the anterior cingulate acts as communications conduit between the amygdala, which, as we've already stated, is one of the most primitive brain structures, and the prefrontal cortex. 

The anterior cingulate thus stands at the crossroads.  Its functionality, or lack thereof, helps determine whether our day-to-day behavior is reflexive and fear-motivated or is a manifestation of our uniquely human ability to recognize a wide array of choices, implications, and consequences.  Newberg has quite graphically shown that meditation and other spiritual practices strengthen the anterior cingulate while also calming the primitive amygdala. 

As might be expected, anger produces an effect quite the opposite from meditation.  Anger shuts down communication to the prefrontal cortex.  Emotion and fear determine and dominate behavior.  As Newberg states, "Anger interrupts the functioning of your frontal lobes.  Not only do you lose the ability to be rational, you lose the awareness that you're acting in an irrational way.  When your frontal lobes shutdown, it's impossible to listen to the other person, let alone feel empathy or compassion….  When you intensely and consistently focus on your spiritual values and goals, you increase the blood flow to your frontal lobes and anterior cingulate, which cause the activity in emotional centers of the brain to decrease." - page 80-81

Bӧn is ancient indigenous spiritual tradition of Tibet.  The lineage of Bӧn teachers is said to have been founded by Tӧnpa Shenrab 18,000 years ago, predating Buddhism by many thousands of years.  Tӧnpa Shenrab was born into a royal family and, according to legend, left the comfort of the palace and traveled to Mount Kailash, where he meditated and attained enlightenment.  Even today, follows of the Bӧn religion venture into nature to fast and pray so they can heal their Light Body and attain a greater understanding of the workings of the mind and of consciousness. 

An essential teaching of Bӧn, known as Dzogchen (or the Great Perfection), suggests that once you heal your Light Body with specific practices, you are even able to survive physical death. 

After the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet during the 7th century, the Bӧn traditions, which to this day remain shamanistic, lost favor among the royal families.  In 1987, however, the Dalai Lama, who is a master of Dzogchen, recognized Bӧn as one of the five schools of Tibetan Buddhism and forbade discrimination against Bӧn practitioners. 

Dzogchen practice cultivates a Light Body that is free from the imprints of trauma and disease.  This is known as the natural, primordial state of an unconditioned mind.  In this state, meditation comes easily and infuses everyday activities.  You no longer need to retire to a primordial cave or monastery to attain inner peace and joy.As your Light Body heals and your natural mind establishes itself, you'll start to attain an inner peace and equanimity that will radiate all around you. 

As you become increasingly enlightened, your body will become more luminous.  People will notice there is no longer a figurative dark cloud hanging over you or a literal dark mood about you.  Instead, there is a new radiance to your being. 

As your Light Body heals and your natural mind establishes itself, you'll start to attain an inner peace and equanimity that will radiate all around you.  As you become increasingly enlightened, your body will become more luminous.  People will notice there is no longer a figurative dark cloud hanging over you or a literal dark mood about you.  Instead, there is a new radiance to your being.  - page 130

While any day of the month would be fine for fasting, the Power Up Your Brain Program recommends that you fast on the 11th day after a full Moon, which is the day considered auspicious for fasting in Ayurvedic texts.  We believe there is a special advantage to fasting on the same day as the many other people who participate in the Power Up Your Brain Program.  When you fast with others, whether they're physically present with you or halfway around the globe, you enter into intentional resonance with those persons.  This will make it easier for you to attain brain synergy as you, along with others, collectively awaken the capabilities of the prefrontal cortex.

Check out the website www.drperlmutter.com for more information, including the five core species of probiotic.

How to Maintain Brain Function

The current issue of Neurology Now magazine includes an article on how to maintain cognitive function.  "Staying Sharp: What you do during your free time could help save your brain" lists the following "brain-boosting activities":

• Learn A Second Language
• Become A Social Butterfly
• Play Music
• Exercise

The article also claims that heart-protective measures may also protect the brain.  For example, it recommends:

• Don't smoke.
• Sleep 7–8 hours a night.
• Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check.
• Eat a low-fat, healthy diet.
• Get plenty of exercise.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Limit alcohol consumption.
• Get blood sugar levels (and diabetes, if you have it) under control.

Yes, cholesterol is still a villain, despite assertions from both cardiologists and neurologists that high blood sugar causes damage, and it's the cholesterol that aids in the repair of that damage.

The biggest payoff is to stimulate your intellect while elevating your blood flow.  Learn to dance or practice martial arts for example.  I try to meditate while I walk, or walk mindfully.

Sleep Well For a Healthy Brain

The latest issue of Neurology Now features an article on the importance of sleep for maintaining a healthy brain, "Sleep Well: Could getting more high-quality sleep protect the brain?".  It is during sleep when the brain cells get rid of waste products.  The article includes tips to ensure you get more sleep.

The same issue lists the following resources that you can use to improve your sleep:

• NINDS Fact Sheet on normal and disordered sleep.
• The American Academy of Neurology's brochure "Sleep Disorders".
• American Sleep Apnea Association.
• National Sleep Foundation.

It's ironic that I'm staying up late in order to bring this information to you.

Good night!

Exercises For Your Brain

As an engineer, I rely on my brain just as much as Aretha Franklin relies on her voice.  So it behooves me to not only keep my brain in good shape, but also to improve it if I can.

That's why I signed up for Lumosity.  The games on Lumosity are actually exercises designed to stimulate and improve one's brain.  To paraphrase from their website, the games on Lumosity "improve key abilities such as working memory, visual attention, and executive function in people of different ages and from different backgrounds."

Here are screenshots of my "Brain Performance Index" and "Training History"...

How to Cultivate Resilience

A 2010 article in Neurology Now¹ explains how we can cultivate resilience in the face of hardship. The process involves changing the way you explain the negative events in your life using these three aspects: Permanence, Pervasiveness, and Personalization.

You can choose to believe that the hardship will last forever (permanent), that it will affect all areas of your life (pervasive), and that it is direct solely at you (personal).  Or you can take a more realistic approach and realize that nothing lasts forever, that the setback alters just one relationship or activity (in the case of a break up or a layoff) and that these things happen to everyone at one time or another -- it doesn't indicate that the universe is "out to get you."

Click here to read the article in full.

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¹ Depression and Resilience, Neurology Now: March/April 2010 - Volume 6 - Issue 2 - p 18–25 doi: 10.1097/01.NNN.0000370189.53041.59

Parkinson's Disease and Christmas

A few months ago yet another family member was diagnosed with a neurological disorder.  My cousin Joe has joined the 1 percent of folks over 60 years old who have Parkinson's Disease.  His sister already had been dealing with Multiple Sclerosis for 30 years.

The latest issue of Neurology Now features an article on Parkinson's Disease (PD): Not Just Tremor: Recognizing depression and other non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease.  And as I read it during the Christmas season, I was especially drawn to this single paragraph:

People with PD even have a tendency to lose their interest in religion—a change more readily considered philosophical than pathological. According to research by Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., of Boston University School of Medicine, people with PD report significantly lower levels of interest in religion. Brain scans show that this lack of interest coincides with changes in the prefrontal cortex but does not correlate with depression, age, education, intelligence, or medication.

 I pondered this all throughout the Christmas religious service.  And I also thought about why I quit the church choir -- mainly it was the hypocrisy of singing about that which I no longer really believed in, particularly at Christmas time when the verse proclaimed the miracle of virgin birth.  (And it should be noted that hypochondria is one of my "pastimes.")  So (feeling empty myself) I wondered if this is how someone who has lost religion feels at Christmas?  Are ministers aware of this aspect of Parkinson's?  What if this happens to a minister with Parkinson's Disease?

Merry Christmas

Resources for "Your Brain at Work"

Here are links to online resources that are cited in "Your Brain at Work," by David Rock.

For research behind the book: http://www.your-brain-at-work.com/

Neuroscience of leadership: http://www.neuroleadership.org/

Information on brain-based coaching programs: www.ResultsCoaches.com

School for children K - 5: www.TheBlueSchool.org

Online tests and training exercises: www.MyBrainSolutions.com

Author's website: www.DavidRock.net

Neurology Now Magazine

Neurology Now Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine from the American Academy of Neurology that's "distributed free to individuals with neurologic disorders, their families, and caregivers through their neurologists' offices. [Some patients] are also eligible to request free home delivery." Of course, you can read it online, too.

The AAN website offers lots of resources for patients who are dealing with everything from Absence of the Septum Pellucidum to Zellweger Syndrome.