[pgd]

amy_louise, on 25 January 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:

I don't take any anti-motion sickness tablets & never have done. I have found that drinking tea does seem to help me focus a bit more. I always seem to drink a lot of tea when writing essays for uni. Yeah I know what you mean about the underlying neurology not being talked about. It's very frustrating. Also, I don't know if this is related to constructional apraxia, but whenever I pour liquids or anything, I have trouble judging the distance from the bottle to the cup, or problems like that?

I would love to know what bit's of the brain are damaged, and all the consequences of the damage. I don't suppose I'll ever know though, because I've never seen anyone other than Orthopaedic specialists, which is frankly ridiculous when you consider it's an injury to the brain. I think I have lots of invisible issues that I think are a result of my hemiplegia. For example, I have anxiety, and do struggle to see problems in a rational sense if you like. There's the visual perception issue, which to me is quite a big one if i'm trying to be an independent adult and can't know where I'm going, I do worry how this will affect my ability to be able to drive. I think these issues are equally as important to be acknowledged as any orthopaedic problems caused by hemiplegia.

In hindsight, it might have been useful to have maybe an education psychologist on board when I started school, so these problems could be identified. It would have saved a lot of trouble!
X

---

amy louise - Thank you for sharing your experiences with coffee/caffeine (including tea) and anti-motion medicines like Bonine. Appreciate it. The fact that you find tea slightly impacts your cognition (you noticed when you write essays for uni) is how tea (also coffee) works for some users. Some users can tell differences between tea vs coffee and, in some cases, tea works better for some and coffee works better for others. This topic of gross/fine motor control, sensory integration, paying attention, hemiparesis, etc. is directly addressed in only one book I know of, an old paperback book titled the How to Cure Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD by C. Thomas Wild with Anita Uhl Brothers, M.D. The How To book (insights only, no miracles) covers many of the issues mentioned in this thread including the idea of math, processing, memory, body balance, crossing the midline of the body, and literally feeling the center of the body. While this whole topic is very important, the How To (1981) educational book is the only book I've found which clearly addresses the underlying neurology of it all in great detail. Regarding the idea of judging the distance from a bottle to a cup, that likely means that a small portion of the cerebellum is affected/also likely the midbrain/related areas and something called feedback loops. Some of these ideas occasionally are brought up at discussion boards such as Dyspraxia discussion groups, however, the only book I've ever found which goes into great neurological detail about the whole topic is the above How To (1981) book. There is an old movie called Awakenings (1990) which is about a Parkinson's drug, L-dopa, and its temporary impact on motor movement but the How To book (1981) is the only in depth source for this whole topic - my view. Neither the How To book (1981) nor the Awakenings movie (1990) are cures but both address the topic - the How To (1981) book going into far more detail than the Hollywood (1990) movie. The How To (1981) educational book is about Tirend, NoDoz, coffee, FDA approved alertness medicines/caffeine compounds/also, Bonine; the Awakenings movie (1990 - entertainment) is about L-dopa. - pgd